heater core replacement

2116 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by c900, Aug 13, 2010

c900

Discussion Starter · Jul 28, 2010

Righto might look at doing the heater core in my 1990 9k tomorrow if the weather is good. Are there any gotchas with doing this? I seem to recall that there's something about the pre-92 9k's that makes heater core replacement a pain in the preverbial...

Craig.

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BurnsSide42

· #2 · Jul 28, 2010

9000 Heater cores are not too hard overall - here is a quick guide how to;
First - retrieve chilled beverage from cooler unit
Second - pop the hood and soak up the 9000 oilly plastic smells from under the hood
Third - get a tool, doesn't matter what - this is just to make it look like you are busy
Fourth - begin beverage consumption
Fifth - repeat for next 4 hours

lol

Seriously tho -
Good step here to remove blower assembly - since the heater core is behind it...
http://www.saab9000.com/procedures/ventilation/blower/blower.php

With replacement of core - change the hoses as well - they are surely as old and dry rotted as the car.... lol

Good luck!

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mcrowley

· #3 · Jul 28, 2010

Everything is jammed under the dash...take your time and don't force anything.

Its also a good idea to do the blower motor at the same time, as you have to remove the blower housing to get the heater core out.

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justin.graeff

· #4 · Aug 2, 2010

When I did it on my '90 9k, it took me about 6 hours total to remove both the blower motor and the heater core. That time also included removing the fins from the blower motor and putting them on the new one. I would suggest replacing the blower motor while you have the whole assembly out.

Get a nice blanket and put it over the top of the engine. You will be sitting up there quite a bit. I removed the throttle but not the intake, but it would make it much easier if you removed both the throttle body and the intake. Once you do that, it's pretty straight forward if you follow the directions on the thread that BurnsSide42 posted.

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BurnsSide42

· #5 · Aug 3, 2010

justin.graeff said:
I removed the throttle but not the intake, but it would make it much easier if you removed both the throttle body and the intake. Once you do that, it's pretty straight forward if you follow the directions on the thread that BurnsSide42 posted.

Why on earth would you remove either the intake or the throttle body?! That is completely un-necessary! Might we well just pull the cylinder head... lol No need for any of that. Remove the upper dog bone mount from the engine - leave the bracket on the tower - remove the false bulk-head wall. And go at it. You can pry the engine forward CAREFULLY and the air box will come right out!

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c900

Discussion Starter · #6 · Aug 13, 2010

I don't have a replacement for the fan, but I do have a brand new heater core. I'll be inspecting all the related hoses too though at the moment I haven't sourced new ones of those.

It seems that the major part of the job is getting the false firewall out of the way so all the internals can be accessed.

Craig.

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