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Homemade Heater core flushing tool

31K views 17 replies 10 participants last post by  blue72super  
#1 ·
Well I am almost at the end of my 2 month project of rebuilding the engine in my "Free" 2001 Passat. The engine is running, but one of the other problems in the car when my sister in law had it was it had no heat. I read the thread "No Heat Blues" and tried that yesterday. After 2 treatments of CLR I had lukewarm heat. I came back and did more research and came across this tool

OTC 6043 Blast-Vac Multipurpose Cleaning Gun : Amazon.com : Automotive

Looks great however I have already spent enough on parts and tools, but the concept looked plausible, so I took what I had and made my own.

  1. 1 foot of 3/4 heater hose
  2. 4 inches 3/4 heater hose
  3. Flush kit "T" for 3/4 hose
  4. Air Blow Gun
  5. Air Pressure regulator (not shown)

Image


I has this stuff already so I assembled as shown in the pic and tried it. The water was running clear thru the heater core. I set the regulator at 35 lbs and hit the air. The water immediately went brown and all kinds of crap came out. After 1 more soaking with CRL & a good flushing with air/water & then water the heat will now burn the hair off your knuckles on high. :wrench::wrench::driving:

Just thought i would share for anyone else having this problem
 
#6 ·
Thinkin' now that maybe I should of left the heater broke so she wouldn't drive it:banghead::banghead:
Put a solenoid in series with the heater core and power it from a hidden switch only you know about. :evil:

Switch off... no heat. "Sorry honey. This damn car is always a problem. I'll drive it so you don't have to freeze. see, I do care about you."
Switch on... yummy heat!:thumbup:
 
#12 ·
It's getting to that time of year when we'll be getting clogged heater core posts. It was time to give mine a good flush and thought I'd share my quick and dirty improvisation of the blast vac and jollyrogers version of it. Hook up the heater hose sections to the heater core inlet and outlet for the usual garden hose flush. I drilled a very small hole into the inlet hose - through a patch of duct tape so I could easily locate the hole. I attached a needle used for inflating balls to my air compressor blow gun and inserted it into the small inlet hose hole. Run water while operating the blow gun and you have my version of the blast vac. Leaks a little water and air at the hole but not much. Seems to have worked - heater now puts out good heat.

The pressure you set the air compressor regulator at doesn't translate to that much pressure to your core - the pressure in the core will never be high as long as you're venting the air and water through a return hose and don't "seal" the core air and water tight. The regulator setting just affects the volume of air you're putting to the core.

I wish you all warm travels in your Passat this winter.
 
#14 ·