Radiator Removal

I was about to send the heater core to the shop to have it cleaned, tested for leaks, and rebuilt if need be when it occured to me that it was on the same fluid system as the radiator. It'll be a shame to have the heater core cleaned only to have crude flushed back in from the radiator, so I decided to pull it and have it sent to the shop together with the heater core. Besides, I've already spilled most of the coolant all over the garage floor last week, so there can't be much more of it left to make too big of a mess! The radiator is mounted on with 2 bolts, but removing it isn't as straighforward as one might think. First, the plastic fan shroud had to be removed ... or rather detached from the radiator, since it can't actually be removed until the radiator is out of the engine bay as the fan is in the way. However, in order to get to the bolts for the fan shroud, the coolant overflow bottle had to be removed from one side and the air intake hose removed from the other side.

Radiator In:

Radiator Not Home:

Once the fan shroud was out of the way though, it was a matter of removing the 2 bolts securing the radiator, detaching the hoses, and pulling the radiator from the engine bay. With the radiator out of the way, and easy access to fan, I'm planning to remove that too to have it repainted. "One thing leads to another" - that's the theme here! At this rate the Volvo will be out of commission for weeks.

Heater Box - Assessing The Damage

This is how the heater unit looks like removed from the Volvo (pictured below). Separating the two halves of the box revealed the heater core, blower motor, and about 2 acres of leaf matter. There's some rust on the inside walls of the box and the rubber seals for both the front and rear vents as well as the gasket for the blower housing have long disintegrated. In addition, the blower motor has seized up - even turning it by hand was difficult. So ... lets see, broken capillary sensor cable to the heater core, plus all of the above ... I've yet to send out the heater core to the radiator shop to have it pressure tested, but it probably has leaks too - pretty much everything is shot!

Heater Box:

Two Halves Separated:

My initial thought of feeding the remaining capillary sensor cable into the heater unit in replacement of the broken-off piece is probably not feasible either, as the very definition of capillary means that it has an internal diameter to hold liquid. This could only mean, broken capillary sensor cable = no more internal liquid = can't un-ring this bell! The entire heater control valve will need to be replaced if my assessment is correct. I'll have to do more research to find out. Well ... on the bright side, I had enough leaf matter from inside the heater box to make compost for the garden. I probably shoudn't have thrown those out as there might have been some seeds of exotic plant species that went extinct 3 decades ago.

Heater Core Exposed:

Is This a Rat's Nest?