Heater Core blew during full throttle. Headgasket leaky?

Post by **abscate** » 31 Aug 2020, 05:04

Dampness in the turbo intake is normal, especially if you haven’t been cleaning the PTC every 30k miles per the maintenance schedule

SweetSmellOfFailure · Post by **SweetSmellOfFailure** » 31 Aug 2020, 12:41

Yeah, I have to clean that, also noticed that the PCV hardpipe going to the PTC 'valve' was broken when I disconnected the heater core, so that probably contributes to it.
As for replacement heater cores, are spectra brand ones okay?

Post by **j-dawg** » 01 Sep 2020, 02:35

The "Swedish Auto Parts" unit from eBay has a decent reputation. It's like $40. Supposedly addresses the weak end caps in the design.

When my heater core popped under exactly the same circumstances - high revs, steam from the dashboard, bypassed it to get home - I used the Swedish Auto Parts unit for a few years, then swapped in a Behr OEM core when I had the coolant drained for other reasons. The original lasted 15 years and 250,000 miles, which I figured was a good track record. $40 or so more than the eBay piece.

bronco · Post by **bronco** » 01 Sep 2020, 10:21

many engines have issues with overpressure in coolant. As pointed out , the waterpump is driven at some ratio to engine speed high engine RPM equals high water pump RPM .

Back in the day when i was drag racing ford small block V8 powered mustangs about 6000 RPM was the limit for heater core safety .

If you ran underdrive pulleys you could go higher . The small block ford V8 had a wet intake manifold and on carburetor engines the heater core was plumbed into the intake . We experimented with flow restrictors and amusingly I once put the restrictor on the wrong side . Instead of restricting water flow *INTO* the heater core I mistakenly restricted it on the hose out

When I say restrict its a fancy way of saying I put a 3/8 drive deep socket inside the heater hose

Fuel injected cars though have a lot of random silly coolant lines going every which way and any of those can easily let go at high RPM if they are 20 years old . Turbo water hoses for instance

especially if oil has been dripping down onto it from a blown cam seal or summat