I decided to replace my heater core yesterday (it has a leak). What have I gotten myself into..

I've taken off the whole dash. Now I'm trying to remove the heater core body. The issue is that it looks like I have to remove the evaporator housing as well. Can anyone else who has done this job verify this? Do I need to evacuate the ac first? There's not much written on this particular job for the 3vze, but nothing in what I found mentioned this extra step.

 

So I did have to evacuate the AC. And at least on mine, the evaporator did have to be removed in order to get to the heater core. The evaporater was dirty, I took it out of its housing and cleaned it out with foam cleaner and then corrected some of the dented fins with tweezers. Heater core has been replaced and seems to be working well. Taking everything apart is easy, but make sure you label bolts and take photos, makes putting it back together a lot easier. I also took the time to change cluster gauge bulbs and lubricated the speedometer with graphite lubricant. Might as well do all you can when everything is taken apart.

 

Sorry that you didn't get any replies. THANKS for posting up the answer for anybody else that searches for this. Glad you got it fixed.