93 Ford E-150 NO HEAT

Clifton73 · #1 11/09/07, 06:15 PM

Replaced heater core. Put in 195 degree thermostat. And new blower motor.
Still no heat. Heat gauge gets to the "O" in normal. It gets a little warm if temps outside are around 50. Any ideas?

agmantoo · #2 11/09/07, 07:13 PM

I think you have air trapped in the system and consequently the system is not full of coolant and you are not getting good circulation through the heater core. It is sometimes difficult to get all the air expelled. With the temperature up on the engine and with the heat control set to maximum carefully put your hand on the heater hoses. Are they both hot?

hunter63 · #3 11/09/07, 07:29 PM

Heater control valve, did you replace that? Might have been on the heater core.
Also look at vacuum line running to heater control valve. Most old ones worked on engine vacuum.

Rocky Fields · #4 11/10/07, 09:16 AM

Hey.

You didn't say if it's a six cylinder. If so, they take a long time to heat up and never really throw much heat in cold winter areas.

You can partially block the radiator front with cardboard or something fancier like semis use on their grill. If it's a base econoline with just two front seats, you can build a barrier wall behind the seats to help keep the heat upfront.

You can buy a supplemental accessory heater.

You can use a hotter thermostat, but you have to switch it back to the 195 when it starts getting warmer.

RF

**Cabin Fever** · #5 11/10/07, 09:27 AM

I agree with Agmantoo's assessment.

Try this, either park the van on a real steep slope or jack up the front end as high as possible. Remove the radiator cap and start the engine. See if the coolant level starts to drop in the radiator after the van warms up. If it does, add additional coolant while it's running in this slanted position. This should help "burp" the trapped air out of the cooling system.

Beeman · #6 11/10/07, 12:25 PM

I'll go with the air trapped in the system theory. To fill cooling systems completely I had to rely on a vacum fill system like the factory uses. it would draw a vacum on the cooling system which also checked for leaks proven by if it held a vacum. Then the vacum would draw the coolant into the system eliminating any air pockets as there was no air in the system. For doing it manually you have to get the fill point to be the highest point and burp the system. You can sometimes remove a heater hose and fill the system thru it forcing the air out of the radiator cap opening. Another small trick is to drill a 1/8" hole in the body of the thermostat to help air pass thru even while the therm is closed. This small bypass doesn't really effect anything and many thermostats actually have a little bleeder built in like this.

seedspreader · #7 11/16/07, 10:54 PM

well, I've got a 94 Ford Aerostar with no heat...

It's a big mystery...

Thermostat has been changed.
Heater core has been changed.
Dash pulled and the vents/valves checked...
Sent to the mechanic who checked it today...

Still no heat... (no air in the system, the hoses going into and out of the heater core are hot.

So there we are... I have to take the vehicle back to him tomorrow.

And by no heat... I mean, not a lick of it.

justmyluk · #8 11/21/07, 09:46 AM

Make sure you got a "Direct Replacement" for your heater core...
If by some chance the you didn't, the inlet and outlet tubes can be reversed.
How do I know this??? It happened to me..
I had a 72 Vega (I know, I just told my age LOL) and the heater core went out. I got a replacement from auto parts store and stuck it in (it looked like a direct replacement). Well...the inlet tube was 1/2 inch and the outlet tube was 3/4 inch (on my old one they were just the opposite) I hooked the 1/2 inch pipe to the 1/2 inch tube and the 3/4 inch pipe to th 3/4 inch tube and thought I was set to go. WRONG...now the hot water was running in the top of the heater core and running straight thru to the bottom...NO TIME TO HEAT!!!

In order for a heater core to work properly, the hot water from the engine needs to enter the lower part and push it's way thru to the top where it will return to the engine a little cooler then when it entered but still hot.

If the hot water is entering the top, then it is running straight thru before it has time to heat the heater core...

If the tubes and the pipes are the same size, make sure you hooked them up in the proper order...

Cheribelle · #9 11/21/07, 12:16 PM

Here's a crazy one for you. We went trhough all that with my 89 Jeep. Finally asked my uncle what kind of wild and crazy thing we hadn't thought of yet. He nailed it. The heater hoses looked fine but had layers inside loose and blocking to flow! After 3 years of no heat! And the local garage told me "It's blowing warm air" Well it happenned to not be cold that day!

raymilosh · #10 11/21/07, 02:50 PM

I went through the same thing with a Ford Ranger truck. We checked and tried everything and replaced everything. It turned out the vanes on the water pump were eaten away and it wasn't flowing enough water around to get it to go through the heater core. we diagnosed it by squeezing closed the large radiator hose that lets the water flow through the engine in a place where it would Force any flowing water to go through the heater core. When we did it and the hoses leading to and from the core got hot, we knew it was a matter of not enough water flow and replaced the water pump. It began to heat fine after that.
ray

raymilosh · #11 03/15/10, 02:04 PM

Now it's 2 years later than my last post. I previously posted that the heat began working after replacing the water pump. I was wrong.

Here's the history. The truck used to heat just fine. then the heat stopped working 2 years ago. The engine temp gage also rarely gets above cold, except while idling. While it is idling, the hose leading to the heater core gets warm. As soon as the truck gets moving, the temp gage cools down and the heater core hose cools down. even if there is cardboard in front of the radiator, the engine stays relatively cool and the heater core hose gets only warmish, not hot. It's too long ago to remember if any work had been done that coincided with the loss of the heat in the forst place.
We replaced the thermostat, water pump, flushed the system and the heater core. We also put the new thermostat in a pot of water and heated it while a thermometer was in there to make sure it opened and closed at the proper temps. It did. I spent a lot of time scratching my head, restricting flow in the hoses and putting cardboard in front of the radiator, all to little avail.
In reality, though, the heat used to work fine, so no "modifications" or restrictions or cardboard are necessary for the heat to work.

I'm going to begin to work on it again this week. If there are new answers to this dilemma, I'l LOVE to hear them.

The radiator needs replacing first and we've bought a ford water pump and thermostat and will be checking them against the ones we installed. After that, I'll try to burp it very carefully. Other than that, though, I am at and have been at a COMPLETE loss as to what is happening.

A couple of questions first:
Is the sensor that is in-line in the heater core hose the one that operates the engine temp gage on the instrument panel? If so, the engine could be running at a good operating temp, but if the water wasn't be flowing through the heater core much and it would produce an artificially low temp reading cause the hot water wasn't flowing past the sensor.

blufford · #12 03/15/10, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seedspreader

well, I've got a 94 Ford Aerostar with no heat...

It's a big mystery...

Thermostat has been changed.
Heater core has been changed.
Dash pulled and the vents/valves checked...
Sent to the mechanic who checked it today...

Still no heat... (no air in the system, the hoses going into and out of the heater core are hot.

So there we are... I have to take the vehicle back to him tomorrow.
And by no heat... I mean, not a lick of it.

Same thing happened to my 1994 aerostar. Try some Barrs Leak (cheapest bottle) and see if starts to throw out some heat. It doesn't take much of a leak maybe even a pinhole for it not to throw heat.

agmantoo · #13 03/15/10, 06:48 PM

Same answer as in '07. Get the system full of coolant and it will heat.

Gianni · #14 03/15/10, 07:04 PM

Sensor should come off of the block.

wy_white_wolf · #15 03/15/10, 07:14 PM

Unhook the heater hoses from the block and look in the nipples. On fords they like corrode shut.

Danaus29 · #16 03/16/10, 03:38 PM

If it's a 351 that's just the way they are. We always had to drive our 91 E-150 for an hour or so before we got any heat. The 5.4 in the '00 is the same way, drive it for an hour before it even starts to put out warm air. As long as it's not overheating I'm fine with it. I carry blankets and extra coats.

Sorry, not 5.6, it's a 5.4. I still can't get the new numbers straight in my head.

Wis Bang 2 · #17 03/17/10, 10:15 AM

My neighbor is a tech. He has a neat funnel for refilling coolant systems, comes w/ interchangeable necks made to lock onto the rad cap mount. He locks it on and fills the system until the funnel is 1/2 full and runs the vehicle w/ the interior heater controls on hot/heat until he is sure the t-stat is open. and the air has bled out. Then he inserts a long handled plug from the top to block the bottom and removes the funnel and drains it into the plastic overflow tank and closes the system.

When I worked in the gas station, we did the same thing by parking repaired autos on the slope leading into the bays and letting them idle w/ the heat on and topping up the rad a few times. Trapped air can be difficult to get out sitting on a flat driveway.

My father had a '63 econoline pickup. The engine [101 cu in falcon 6 cyl] was between the seats so there was a 'tunnel' from the grill back to the rad. The heater was mounted under the radio w/ the heater hoses running thru the tunnel so they were always in the airflow. You NEVER had heat while moving...great Ford design...

fixer1958 · #18 03/17/10, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clifton73

Replaced heater core. Put in 195 degree thermostat. And new blower motor.
Still no heat. Heat gauge gets to the "O" in normal. It gets a little warm if temps outside are around 50. Any ideas?

I think those older ford vans had a heater control valve. It may have been mentioned already. Check to see if it has vacuum to it or the lack thereof. It may be cable operated, I can't remember.

Seedspreader.......
On your Aerostar, those things are sweet.
A true mechanics nightmare.
Check to see if you have a pencil about 3" long stuck under the bottom of the blend door. Anything bigger won't slide down the defrost ducts and lodge in the bottom of the evap/heater case. You may be able to tell by moving the hot/cold lever back and forth. You can kind of hear it slap shut on both extremes. If it doesn't, something is blocking it.
The heater core has to be removed and you can feel around (to the left)because the blend door is right there.

I have run across this about 10 times. Makes me laugh every time because it's usually a kid hauler and kids like to draw and the dash is really flat and big.
If that's not it, I dunno.

Danaus29 · #19 03/17/10, 09:45 PM

There is a blower motor resistor but unless I am mistaken if that is bad the blower wouldn't run.

Temp sending unit being bad would just make the gauge read wrong, not keep the heat from working. On the illustrations in my manual the one that the gauge reads is the one on the block, not the heater core hose. Could the heater core sensor be plugged?

Could the heater core hose be plugged, kinked, or the heater core bypassed? Does it have the quick disconnect fittings? The fittings could be buggered up or O rings or spacers blocking the adaptors. That would keep you from getting heat in the passenger compartment. Check your fuses too.

Ken Scharabok · #20 03/18/10, 03:57 AM

Different situation. Heater in my 84 Ranger stopped putting out heat. Engine ran normal temperatures. Mechanic back flushed heater and said the first stuff to come out was almost solid gunk. He also advised flushing out entire engine. Took several minutes of running water through it for it to run clear. Heater works fine now.