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Can't we just clamp that damn heater bypass hose?

45K views 39 replies 15 participants last post by  mrvanwinkles 
#1 ·
I mean if I have no heat and my heater is likely plugged, can't I just clamp down on that stupid bypass hose and FORCE the coolant to go through the heater? I realize it would circulate the crap around the system but then right away I could get a coolant flush and as long the crud was dislodged it should get flushed out right? Has anyone tried this?
 
#3 ·
Yes I did try that about a year ago, and you know what my heat did increase a little bit seem the faster I drove the better the heat. IT was not soon after this tha i FLUSHed my core with liquid plumber gel. A process that is working till this day. Who knows if I just left the bypass hose clamped that the core would eventually become unclogged it self. I guess it depends on how badly clogged the HC is. Mine was clogged with 2 large bottles of bar leak. OUCH!
 
#10 ·
The whole purpose of the bypass is to prevent you from starving the motor from coolant if the heater core plugs up. Bye Bye motor!
The heater hose is a accessory. You can cap off the outlet and intake inlet ports to run without a heater hose at all. The waterpump simply shares a small amount of the force that circulates for the motor.
So why is there a bypass on a heaterhose? So the cold motor will heat up 10% faster to activate the catalytic converters sooner, for emissions.
 
#5 ·
^^^^^ +1
 
#12 · (Edited)
I use the Prestone Super Radiator Flush and use 2 jugs of it, cost a few bucks at Walmart and works okay. It says to leave it in your system and run it for about 10 hours(?) i think of total time and can be between different days/weeks of driving.

Needless to say when i used the stuff and kept it in for a couple weeks and drained my system i got a bunch of calcium and rust out. I used about 9 gallons of distilled water to refill and drain the system and the rust just kept coming.

The one guy says use liquid plumber and it probably works and i might try it if my system gets much worse but i would be more worried about what its going to harm in the system than how well it works; i am sure it works good.

Can't wait to flush my cooling system again next winter and see how much gunk i can take out.



I need to bypass my heathose though, are you guys clamping it for the winter and taking it off in spring?

Also is it the same location of the hose i do when i do my heatcore flush?
 
#13 ·
There are some super hi-powered plumbing products out there to eliminate calcium buildup. Way stronger than normal automotive flush products. However, you check online about using it for car rad systems and they say NO! It supposedly attacks aluminum parts. If I was just driving a vehicle of low dollar value I would use those products anyway. Saves all this reverse flushing business that's not too effective anyway. Just well flush afterwards.
 
#14 ·
I'm sorry, but how the hell would this solve anything? The heater cores failed even without a bypass, ford knew that. What makes you think that taking your bypass out is gonna magically unplug it, that obviously didn't work for everyone who didn't have the bypass but had heater core failure anyway. Flush it or replace it. The 3rd option is to go without heat.

I flushed mine with water and compressed air, it worked kind of crappy for the first week, then all of a sudden I started getting pretty good heat, I guess it eventually unclogged itself after blowing compressed air and over like 6 gallons of water through it, but can't remember exactly how much I used. The water JUST from the heater core was all BROWN like the consistency of chocolate milk, only orangeish. There was a crap ton of metal flakes and rust too. If you did get it unplugged, you might have to change the coolant like 3 times to get all the crap out, I sure as hell wouldn't want any of what came out of my heater core running in my engine or rad, if it plugged the core it could plug a coolant passage or the rad, screw that.

Sorry to sound rude, had a long day.
 
#26 · (Edited)
here is the "ghetto flush" i did on mine.

Take off the two hoses to the heater core.
drain coolant before you do this

get garden hose with nossle that squirts a straight stream.

position nossle so it squirts into one of the heater core
inlets. let it squirt for awhile, them repeat the process with
the other heater core connection. keep doing this back and forth
until it runs clear and with good flow. so your changing direction
of flush into the core each time you do this.

If your degass tank is full of brown crud, flush the entire engine too and
reload with fresh antifreeze. also make sure degass tank is not cracked
on the bottom

If you damage your bypass hose in the process, get a 5/8 radiator hose
"T" and replace the molded on connection with the T fitting and hose
clamps. you will have to break the molded fitting off the hoses

bob
 
#30 ·
CLR has been suggested on this forum and others but the fine print on the bottle back cautions not to use it on aluminum, brass or copper. Its website also warns against its use in automotive cooling systems. I did before knowing this and it gave me great heat..... and a pass. floorboard leak. Dont know for sure if it was the caustic properties of the CLR or it simply cleaned out any leak-preventing gunk or old stop-leak? I do know i changed out the heater core shortly afterwards lol.
 
#33 ·
Where this metal comes from

> So where is all this metal coming from? Isn't it bad that
> the insides of our cars are basically rusting away?

All steel rusts in the presence of oxygen. It's not that Ford's steel or Ford's motor is inferior. The way the manufacturer prevents rust is with rust inhibitor, which is built into the antifreeze. Although the antifreeze part of the antifreeze is permanent, the rust inhibitor wears out. That's why you replace antifreeze regularly. If you leave it in too long, or buy a used car where the previous owner didn't replace his antifreeze, you'll have rust which with time clogs the heater core. If you continue to leave it, you'll also clog the radiator core. The heater core, since it's little, is easier to clog, so take it as a warning if your heater core clogged that it's time to not only reverse flush the heater but also to flush the entire system.
 
#34 ·
> So where is all this metal coming from? Isn't it bad that
> the insides of our cars are basically rusting away?

All steel rusts in the presence of oxygen. It's not that Ford's steel or Ford's motor is inferior. The way the manufacturer prevents rust is with rust inhibitor, which is built into the antifreeze. Although the antifreeze part of the antifreeze is permanent, the rust inhibitor wears out. That's why you replace antifreeze regularly. If you leave it in too long, or buy a used car where the previous owner didn't replace his antifreeze, you'll have rust which with time clogs the heater core. If you continue to leave it, you'll also clog the radiator core. The heater core, since it's little, is easier to clog, so take it as a warning if your heater core clogged that it's time to not only reverse flush the heater but also to flush the entire system.
The whole point of my comment was this issues did not seem to affect the
earlier vulcans. somewhere around Gen 3, this problem started happening.
So if they did not rust internally like this before, why Gen3 and after?
what changed to make this happen?
 
#37 ·
They changed the cooling system routing for the new 96 body style which caused hot and cold spots in the system, breaking down the antifreeze prematurely. Toyota made a similar mistake with their oil passage routing on a 2000-era V6 in the Sienna minivans.
 
#39 · (Edited)
Long story - the bypass, and the heater core.

Hi, I'm a new member (Canada - Eastern Ontario)

Own a 2000 Taurus SE sedan - 3.0 L V6 Vulcan Engine. Over 200,000 km now.

I read with much interest all the the heater core / cooling system issues that everyone is writing about.

I too have had some of these issues. Long story - but I'll try and fit it in.

1. 5 years or more ago started to develop a slow drip coolant leak from the front engine cover. Too small a leak to worry about for about the next year and a half / two years - but the leak got worse. Plus, it was leaking down on a hot exhaust part (cat convertor?) and then vapourizing / steaming up into the engine compartment - and then could smell in car - being taken into the vent system. Worse at a stop light. Not good. Not healthy. Gross smell. Had to fix at that point. Plus loosing too much coolant. Bad for the environment. Expensive.

2. Maybe 4 years ago, tried a stop leak product in the coolant. Helped slow the leak for awhile, maybe a year, but had other serious consequences. ( ex. Ended up plugging up the heater core - and then no heat in winter - added expense and trouble to have system flushed. )

[ SO I DO NOT RECOMMEND EVER USING A STOP LEAK PRODUCT IN YOUR COOLING SYSTEM - There are too many consequences and trouble later on. Don't do it. Plan to fix the problem correctly - without using any stop leak product. ]

3. Eventually had to have the Engine, front cover gasket replaced since it was leaking too much coolant. That was expensive and took some time at the shop. I had them replace the water pump and front crank seal (?) at the same time - it just made sense to do that at the same time since all those parts are off and accessible at that time. So new water pump - for sure.

In order to do this work, the oil pan had to come down - so they tell me. So they needed a new oil pan gasket also. That is some kind of special rubber gasket from Ford - so it was expensive. More than a hundred bucks just for the special oil pan gasket.

4. The use of Stop Leak in the coolant back when, eventually plugged up/restricted the heater core. No heat in winter. So a couple years ago, took it to a Cooling system and Rad specialty shop. They Flushed the system and did a special Heater Core Flush separately - and that brought back all the heat. Great.

BUT ... The RAD SHOP also cut the short little heater core BYPASS hose, that runs between the black steel pipes on the firewall, and plugged the two short ends with short 1/2 inch bolts - cut short, inserted as plugs, and hose clamps to seal.

So the RAD SHOP blocked my heater core bypass tube completely on me.

Great - that got more hot coolant to flow through the heater core - but had other consequences later on.

[ SO - I DO *NOT* RECOMMEND YOU PERMANENTLY BLOCK YOUR HEATER CORE BYPASS TUBE / HOSE - RE: MY PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE - PLEASE READ ON ]

5. Summer comes, and when things get HOT, I notice my temperature guage on the dash is fluctuating up and down alot. From mid position to up near the hot mark. Never did that before. Plus the electric rad fans are cycling on and off a LOT more than normal.

I investigate, find the bypass plugs installed by the rad shop, and remove them, and replace them myself with a short piece of 1/2 copper tube.

Things go back to normal and work as before. No guage fluctuation. No rad fans cycling alot.

6. Few months later, I replace, and extend the bypass hoses upwards to the upper firewall area, where they can be easily accessed. The hoses come up in a curved loop fashion and I installed an EVERCO heater control valve in the bypass circuit. Controlled manually from the cabin with a choke pull off cable. Not easy - but I did it.

7. Couple years later - now - lack of heat again in the cabin.
So I go to a garage, explain the issue, and he does a system flush for me - but we decide to not do a separate heater core flush yet. Just do a simple system flush (without heater core flush for now). Installs a new thermostat at the same time. Fine.

No luck. Still only about half the heat I should have in the car. And winter is coming on in Canada. Need full heat to de-ice / defrost the car.

So I did the Heater Core flush myself after at home. And that gave me full heat again.

Read on ...


8. Did Heater Core Flush myself at home.

Since last year, I already had extended the bypass hose connections up to the top of the engine compartment - I now have easy access to them.

Disconnect the EVERCO heater control valve I installed- gain access to the two 5/8 hoses I installed. Put in two garden hose fittings / nipples and clamp.

Using 2 pair of vice grip, slip over the jaws, some short pieces of extra hose to protect, and clamp off / plug by squeezing - the lines from the water pump to the heater core, and the one from the heater core back to the engine / thermostat.

The heater core is now isolated from the rest of the cooling system - so you can flush it independently.

Flush, first in backwards direction, through one heater core bypass lines access point, with garden hose connected to hot water from inside house.

On first flush, out blows rust, sludge, and couple gallons of brown filty coolant (and that is *after* the garage system flush !) No wonder no heat.

So there was definitely a sludged up restriction there.

Flush a few times back and forth. Out comes more brown stuff and rust particles.

Introduce a safe rad cleaner product into heater core only - Kleen Flo rad cleaner and flush, cut with warm water to make maybe half a gallon's worth - with a funnel elevated into one of the hoses - and out the other hose into container. Let sit for awhile - as instructed.

Re-flush back and forth a few times with warm water.

Final flush with cold water - let the cool water run thru the core for a couple minutes till it looks clear enough.

Re-fill heater core with 50/50 water and new coolant - same method - funnel into one of the bypass hoses - displace liquid out the other into bucket - till you see green coolant coming out.

Close everything up, put everything together, remove the vice grips hose squeezers.

[ Be very careful - don't recommend using harsh cleaner products. CLR I tested pure - eats zinc coating off galvanized nails. Not to hard on aluminum or copper - but did oxidize them a little. I think best to try a safe and recommended coolant system cleaner product FIRST. Don't recommend DRANO. There's steel pipes on the firewall. ]

9. Got an anti-rust spray product in a can and sprayed those steel coolant system pipes on the firewall. The ones everyone says rust out and leak. To slow down rusting from the outside.

SO I'M FLUSHING FROM THE BYPASS TUBES POINTS, AND CLAMPING OFF THE HOSES TO AND FROM THE ENGINE TO ISOLATE THE HEATER CORE.

THAT MADE THE JOB FAIRLY EASY FOR ME. LESS TO DISCONNECT AND RECONNECT. BUT STILL A MESSY AND TIME CONSUMING JOB TO DO AT HOME YOURSELF.

FOR MOST PEOPLE - RECOMMEND TAKE IT TO A SHOP - AND MAKE SURE THEY DO A SEPARATE HEATER CORE FLUSH IN ADDITION TO A FULL SYSTEM FLUSH. EVERY TWO YEARS. THAT WILL SAVE YOU LOTS OF TROUBLE AND PROBLEMS IN THE FUTURE.

I RECOMMEND - MAKE SURE THEY DO *NOT* PERMANANENTLY PLUG YOUR HEATER CORE BYPASS PASSAGE. I FEEL QUITE CONFIDENT THAT BYPASS PASSAGE SERVES AN IMPORTANT FUNCTION. I HAVE PROVEN THAT PRACTICALLY FOR MYSELF.
 
#40 ·
Forgot to mention - be careful pulling and tugging on any of the hoses connected to the heater core or those steel coolant tubes.

Work gently and carefully.

Try not to apply any major force to those steel coolant tubes on the firewall. Mine are in pretty good condition. But they can rust and become weaker than normal.

In fact, the garage in item 7. of my previous post - was a little "SCARED" to do a separate heater core flush for me. So we decided to try without one first.

If the garage breaks those lines, and they start to leak - it's a difficult job to try and fix it.

They know full well those steel - coolant carrying lines on the firewall can rust and get weak. And I think when I showed them and I explained my EVERCO heater control valve and, bypass hose tube modification to the garage ... they sort of did not want to touch it - if they could avoid it.

Thats Fine ... we all want to avoid unnecessary troubles.

Just be careful and gentle if working on and around those hoses and tubes.

Remind the Garage too - if they're doing that sort of work for you.
 
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