coolant smell with heat on with certain vents

[jrp12357]

ok well here is the deal. I bought the truck in april of this year. it had crappy looking coolant hoses so i wanted to fix that. my friend and I replaced the t stat, t stat housing b/c old one was corroded, replaced upper and lower rad hoses and flushed coolant and put new stuff in. i went through the spring and whole summer with no over heating issues at all, truck would read 170 but its a 195* t stat so im thinking guage might be off.

So now winter is coming its cold out and i have a problem. Truck still reads the same but to get heat, takes about 15-20 minutes for truck to warm up completely and when i turn heat on the floor i have a sweet smell like coolant. but when i switch to upper vents or the defrost, smell is not there at all. Where should i look?

sorry for the long post

 

[ald94]

Check your heater core, it is under the passenger side of the dash. It will be inside a plastic black box. When you have the heat on floor setting check to see if there is any coolant leakage on the passenger side floor board. I had the same problem in a friends truck. The heater core is a little bit of a pain to get to and to change. Pick up a Haynes manual it'll help you out if you have to replace the heater core.

 

[jrp12357]

well luckily i havent noticed any coolant or anything wet for that matter on the floorboard. i wish it was warmer out so i can do this lol, but i will look into it this week b/c the smell is starting to give me a headache as i drive

 

[98nightmare]

^^^^^^^^^ agree with previous statement, its the core.. you may have a very small leak if the carpets not getting wet. Be careful tho, wouldnt advise driven it unless you disconnect the heater hoses from the firewall and hook them to each other.. You can get a plastic sleeve they slide onto from the parts store where the PCV valves are usually.. Cheap fix ($3) till you can pull the core out.. Id go ahead and do this for now.. Or keep a close eye on your water and temp gauge..

 

[ald94]

Good idea 98nightmare, I forgot about that quick fix!

 

[jrp12357]

well i been driving liek this since april, just havent noticed the smell til i turned heat on this time of year. i hope i can get by through the winter atleast

 

[98nightmare]

You can pick up some of the stop leak stuff and use it till spring.. Then flush it out.. ?

 

[intimidator4x4]

You can pick up some of the stop leak stuff and use it till spring.. Then flush it out.. ?

My old 96 had the same problem, and this worked good

 

[jrp12357]

im doing the heater core at my friends job the same time we do my tires and alignment and other stupid stuff. this will be in about 3 weeks. rockauto has all the parts i need for ac delco

 

[DRAGGIN95]

That heater core is relatively easy to change compared to a lot of other ones, with practice it can be done in about 30 min., I pull the glove box, pull off the bottom cover which is held in place by several 7mm screws and one of them is fairly difficult to remove and then the retainer strap, pull the 2 hoses under the hood, and at this point I like to blow some compressed air through the heater core, because there is always some coolant left in it that will dump in your floor when you remove it, and if you blow some air through it while it's still in place, it clears the coolant out. Now the heater core can be removed, and reinstall is reverse precedure, I also leave out the one difficult screw and I have done this on probably 10 of them with no problem's, this way if you have to get back in there again, you won't have to deal with that one screw again. Anyway good luck with your heater core change.