c0de_red1

i have an 86 4x4 with a brand new 22r and a new radiator as well. and the heat sucks. put in a 192 deg thermostate when i put in the engine last january. heat sucked back then too. it blows warm but never hot. along with that the engine just doesnt run real warm when its cold out. you can drive it for an hour and while running grab and hold the upper radiator hose. what could cause this? should i replace the thermo? is my fan clutch bad? what could cause it run cold? with the new engine it also got a new water pump, fan clutch, radiator, headers, weber carb. i dont think that the old engine was a 22re should make any difference in heating.

JohnnyCanuck

Maybe check your heater control valve near the back of the engine, they can get sticky or seize up in one position.

c0de_red1

Yes i had that checked out at a shop and everything was opperation normally just cool...

Rerunn

That sounds like the tstat is stuck open or your heater core is clogged up. Could even be the lines stopped up.

c0de_red1

Guess i did forget to mention that i have back flushed the core and hoses with air and water and same result. Even when i first put in the tstat it still ran cool and blowed warm. Im really out of ideas as to what it could be. I grab the upper radiator hose and its warm instead of hot.

MudHippy

Little wire that hooks onto the slide/lever/control deally(the thing you move left/right horizontally to adjust the heater temp). You tear things off the dash near there until you can get to what's behind it(the heater/AC control panel). Dig around back there until you find the thin wire with the Z looking bend on the end of it(it's sheathed with black plastic, similar in appearance to the brake/shifter cable for a bicycle). Once you got that found, you look at the other wire thats hooked onto the heater temp slidermajig I'm talking about. You'll see how the sheathing for it inserts into a little clippymadoobob. Make sure you hook the one you just found up in its little clippy deal. Then you run that Z hooky at the end of the wire back through the hole it popped out of on the back of the sliding temp changer whatchamacallit. Put her all back together...and WHALLAH! Your heater works again.

Oh...almost forgot the best part. You give yourself a big ol' kick in the ass for wasting so much time trying to fix it every other way but the right one. Fun huh? Tell me about it...

c0de_red1

Haha i love your lingo. It still adjusts between cold and hot air tho. It just isnt heating up like it should. I know the coolant should be hotter than what it is.

MudHippy

If you say so I guess. I still say you're chasing your tail there though.

BTW, proof that I'm right/wrong can be found, or rather heard, by simply operating the heater temp adjustment lever/shifter. While sliding it from left to right, you should hear the damper slam shut just before you've pushed it all the way to the right. It's a very distinct sound, quite loud enough to hear even with the blower on full blast. If you don't hear it, it's not closing, and you effectively have no working heater. Then you'll have to do what I've told you to make it work again.

I bring this up, because it's happened to me many times now. It's a pretty screwed up piece of engineering. Which on these older rigs tends to fail as I've described. By that I mean, just by sliding the control towards HOT on a very cold morning(or doing so with enough force at any time) can/will cause that wire to pop loose. Then you've gotta go dash diving.

osv

this ^^^

just because the temp lever on the dash slides both directions, doesn't mean that there is full flow to the heater core.

open the hood, reach over to open and close the heater core control valve(it's mounted to the firewall) through it's full range of travel, in conjunction with moving the temp lever in the cab.

on my '86, the valve is open when the wire going through the firewall is pulled all the way in, towards the cab.