Last weekend my son and i took a short, cold drive to town and discovered we have a very inadequate amount of heat in the car.After doing several searches in the forums for a problem i'm currently having I've come up with a list of troubleshooting steps of what i've done and what's still left to do so i wanted to run it by the crowd in case i missed something.
Car is 1980 C3 with L48 350. With the car warmed up and the temp gauge barely moving above 100 and the heater on hot and blower wide open. I have plenty of air movement, but not very warm air.
Steps I've already taken
With the car idling in the driveway I can feel the radiator hoses are both warm and both heater hoses are warm and they seem about the same temp.
The radiator is a DeWitts aluminum with stock engine driven fan for now. Plan is to put electric.
I don't know what temp thermostat is currently in it and plan to replace it when i move to the next troubleshooting step. The plan is for a 180 degree thermostat.
There is a vacuum operated valve on the heater hoses hear the firewall that i'm assuming opens and closes the water flow to the heater core. I removed the vacuum hose with the engine running and heat on high, but feel no vacuum in the line going into the firewall. I tried to pull a vacuum on the side of the line going to the valve and it will hold a vacuum leading me to believe the diaphragm in the valve is working. I didn't think to pull a vacuum and check the inside for an increase in heat.
In the cabin, i can hear the flap moving back and forth when i move the temp from cold to hot. But i don't know where the vacuum line goes from the heater core valve into the cabin to make sure it didn't come lose. If there is no vacuum, maybe the valve is staying closed ???
Since i'm planning to add electric fans, i thought while the system is drained, i would pull the heater hoses and try to back flush the heater core.
During the summer the gauge on the dash does run around 190-200 degrees with the A/C running, but during this trip and while idling in the driveway it would barely move above the 100 mark.
Anything else i may have missed ? Might it be worth wile to replace the vacuum valve with a manual one ?
Thanks
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