Green Fluid In My Passenger Floor Board

[J E E P]

Seems I have a leak of some kind and it leaked all in the passenger floor board. Is this a heater coil leak? If so how hard and expensive is this gonna be to replace or fix?

It seems to be one thing after the other after buying this Jeep!

 

[Petescj]

That would definately be my guess. Antifreeze from the heater core. Not really a hard job , but a little tough to get at.

 

[dirtdobber]

sounds like a leaking heater core you got there. If you need to replace the heater core and hire it out ti could be more than $400 with parts and labor.

Search this forum for the Chevy Blazer heater swap - I hear it works out great.

If your lucky - tighten the heater hose clamps on the engine side of firewall.

Alternative....
Realistically - Jeep CJ heaters only warm your feet if your lucky. So just put a loop bypass
on the hoses and forget about it and dress warm!

-or- you can buy plug in electric heater -or- buy a cigarette lighter electric seat warmer.

What part of TEXAS are you located? I'm in Bee Cave, TX just west of Austin.

 

[Jimbos76cj]

How often do you use your heat.. If never or not alot you can just bypass it and not worry about it until you need to fix it.

 

[Cheepjeep85]

Nah don't bypass it, fix it its easy, and do the blazer blower motor upgrade at the same time. It can be fixed and upgraded for less than $60 and you'll have real heat that'll flat run you out. You have to remove your battery tray, there are 3 studs sticking throught he firewall near it, and there is one behind the the valve cover, remove those nuts, disconnect your heater hoses, disconnect the control cables (that's the tricky part) and then you can wrestle the box down and out. Then pull the cover off the back of the heater box, take the old heater core out and put the new one in. While you got it out read the thread listed above to do the blower upgrade. Total time to do all this is less than 3 hours.

Droooiiddd 2

 

[J E E P]

OK Thanks for all the info....sounds like I'm gonna get to do more to this jeep than first anticipated! Oh well...one day it will be complete!!

Thanks Again

 

[J E E P]

dirtdobber I'm in the Sherman/Denison Area little over an hour north of Dallas.

 

[Petescj]

Nah don't bypass it, fix it its easy, and do the blazer blower motor upgrade at the same time. It can be fixed and upgraded for less than $60 and you'll have real heat that'll flat run you out. You have to remove your battery tray, there are 3 studs sticking throught he firewall near it, and there is one behind the the valve cover, remove those nuts, disconnect your heater hoses, disconnect the control cables (that's the tricky part) and then you can wrestle the box down and out. Then pull the cover off the back of the heater box, take the old heater core out and put the new one in. While you got it out read the thread listed above to do the blower upgrade. Total time to do all this is less than 3 hours.

Droooiiddd 2

Thanx for elaborating on that.

 

[Ruckus45]

This was actually the first repair I had to do on my first CJ a decade ago. It is real cheap and pretty easy. Check your cooling system hoses though. After I replaced my heater core I blew two hoses. Im not sure if the new heater core increased pressure on dry rotted hoses but it would be something I would consider if doing it again.

 

[Cheepjeep85]

Thanx for elaborating on that.

Hey I do what I can. You know I gotta rebuild the heater box on my dads 79 in the near future (meaning when I get time off work) do you think anybody would be interested in a full write up with pics and all.

Droooiiddd 2

 

[J E E P]

Previous owner told me that he thought he replaced that heater core a couple of years ago. Who knows!! Said I might want to check the hoses on it before trying to change it all out.

 

[Petescj]

Take plenty of pics and write it up. Its a good upgrade for Cjs that see the cold.

Hey I do what I can. You know I gotta rebuild the heater box on my dads 79 in the near future (meaning when I get time off work) do you think anybody would be interested in a full write up with pics and all.

Droooiiddd 2

 

[MN CJ7]

Seems I have a leak of some kind and it leaked all in the passenger floor board. Is this a heater coil leak? If so how hard and expensive is this gonna be to replace or fix?

It seems to be one thing after the other after buying this Jeep!

There is another common issue...

The cooling hose from the front of AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l is 7/8" hose and the heater core is 5/8". When the 7/8 hose is put on the heater core metal tube...... it likes to leak... I tried to attach mine 5 times or so and it always leaked a little and the pressure on the clamp was excessive.... I thought of a second layer of hose, heat shrink, RTV, and few other ideas...

The solution for us jeepers...
There is inexpensive neck down cooling hose adapter... 7/8" to 5/8 and worked great... Was at one of the auto stores for 1-2$ and well worth it..... not easy to find so do on phone.... I think it was AutoZone or ADvance Auto. I used the 7/8 almost all the way to the heater core adn then necked down to 5/8", use a couple of zip ties at the battery frame work to hold up the heater hose and not fatique the heater core pipes. Heater core is pretty fragile adn the last thing we want to do is crank down of the clamps....

I also tried to stretch the 5/8 over the front engine connection and cut my knuckles a few times... I thought if I had to do a field fix and not all my tools, or the hose was cold.....it would be even harder to do...

The neck down piece works very well...




PS..
Heater core is also part of the cooling system... On a hot day or working hard I have put my auto heater on HOT and fan on HIGH to help with the engine cooling.... This is a very "cool" trick to cool off your engine..

Second many 258s have a water jacketed intake that is heater and kept constant temp by the hot coolant.. Another heat sink and flow goes from front of engine, to intake, to heater core, rt to front of engine.. Even is heater core was bypassed the intake exit is also 5/8.....

Hope that helps...

 

[bullseye]

It seems to be one thing after the other after buying this Jeep!

Get used to it! Mine blew last year too. Cost me about 100 bucks to get it replaced...