Replacing heater core

[sbilbrey]

My 1999 XJ has a leaky heater core. As far as I can tell it has leaked for years. When I first got it turning on the heater turned the inside of the Jeep into a cloud, lots of condensation. And the floors got visibly wet. Determining that this is the issue I bypassed the heater lines. The floors (mostly drivers side) are also rotted out, I am guessing by the heater core leaking. I decided to replace the heater core when I did the floors. But honestly this Jeep has rust everywhere. The drivers seat is attached to an 8' piece of angle iron because of how rotten the floor is. I might still do the floors someday, but not today. I am wondering about the difficulty of switching out the heater core. Can someone comment on the difficulty of the task?

Thanks,
Sammer

 

[notamos]

There are some good writeups on here and over @ JF. Give yourself a solid day to complete this - it is a real b!tch. Get a gasket kit from the dealer (expensive) and try to find a quality heater core. The aftermarket units are MUCH cheaper than the OEM unit.

 

[Boveevil]

I have a heater core from O'rielys, Its been in there for almost 4 years, no leaks and you could cook a turkey in the jeep if you wanted to. It is tedious/time consuming, but not difficult job to do.

 

[Firewater]

I did mine over the winter. As stated, it is not hard, just time consuming and kind of annoying. I was helped greatly by members of this site . . . there are really good write ups and helpful tips out there (do a search). Some writeups I saw suggested taking out the steering column and totally removing the dash. I found that necessary . . . I dropped the column and swung the dash out wide enough to access the hvac box with no problem. The key for me was to stay organized. Here's a writeup of my experience:http://justanothersillybolg.blogspot.com/2014/02/1998-jeep-xj-heater-core-evap-core.html

I also include links to another really good writeup. Do your research, stay organized, and it should be no problem.