odd coolant leak

[historyg]

Ok soo recently i have had a coolant leak, inside the car passenger side floor mat.. I am assuming that its from the heater core. Its very annoying as it decides to leak whenever it chooses, this happen, after i tugged at the head core hoses under the hood, because i was trying to get them off to change my wires, but couldnt as they were stuck on from years of just sitting there. Do you guys think its a hole in the under hood tubes, or something near the heater core. the heat works, but when i push the car, the coolant comes out, its a weird problem, and i would like to fix it, as the coolant will destroy my carpet in some time, if it keeps over flowing.

The car does not overheat, as it stays from 170-220 it has not passed 220, its a 307 1986 cutlass supreme, no mods as of now.

 

[Blake442]

You'll need to replace your heater core.
They're less than $20 new at the parts store and it takes about 30 minutes to change it out.
Replacing the hoses while you're at it is a good idea as well.

For future reference, if you wish to remove the heater hoses from the heater core, never pull or tug at them, as you can damage the seal where the hose fitting enters the core assembly.
Use a small pick to loosen the hose from the fitting, or just slice the hose and remove it.
Heater cores are fragile, so it's best to be careful to avoid needlessly damaging it.

 

[carmangary]

I replaced mine recently and found a lot of places sell heater cores that are different than the originals and don't fit without modification. Advance Auto sells the wrong kind but I found CarQuest had the correct kind for about $35. I also tried buying one online and it was also the wrong kind. And be careful, because, although the online picture matched the correct kind, it was not what they sent! In short, don't pay for one until you see it in your hands and it matches. The difference will be the top part. There is supposed to be a notch that goes down between the inlet / outlet ports. The incorrect ones don't have that notch their so the mounting bracket won't fit.

 

[FE3X CLONE]

I replaced mine recently and found a lot of places sell heater cores that are different than the originals and don't fit without modification. Advance Auto sells the wrong kind but I found CarQuest had the correct kind for about $35.

I had the exact same problem when I replaced the heater core on my mom's '88 CSCB. All of the major chains had the wrong heater cores except for Carquest. I don't know if its because it was an '88 model and they thought it was the FWD version but they have something messed up in their computer system.
At Carquest I had them pull one off the shelf to look at it before buying.

 

[historyg]

fudge knuckles, I never replaced a heater core, it always scared me, is its location in the center, or under the car? I see that gbodyparts.com sells a heater core oem for around 50 bucks, where would i get the hoses summit, ill replace it when i do my radiator, as i plan to change the whole cooling system, in regards to the sbc set up i want to do down the line.

 

[Jg85350Regal]

Its cake in these cars, ive never seen an easier to access heater core in anything. Just unbolt the top half of the hvac box under the hood and it slides right out.