Mercury Capri B6T no heat.

[ectonine]

I know this is not a Capri forum, but I figured since the car is closely enough related you guys would let me slide. Anyways, I just got a turbo Capri, and for some reason its giving off no interior heat. Any ideas? Heater hoses are hooked up.

[kzbill]

1. check the water for oil and rust. (Plugs up heater cores) also oil can indicate bad headgasket.
2. If the heater core is plugged I have cleaned them with some success.
3. check or replace thermostat with OEM style thermostat. (is it running cold on temp guage?)
4. make sure heater core is not full of air. (burp system)

[ectonine]

If the heater core was plugged wouldn't it cause the car to overheat?

[kzbill]

no

[kzbill]

lets try something different, I'll ask you and you answer.

Is it running hot or cold on the engine temp guage?

Is there rust and or oil in the coolant?

Are you leaking coolant, anywhere?

Answers to these questions can help diagnose, questions to these questions won't work.

[ectonine]

Its does not run hot according to the factory temp guage, but it does do some weird fluctuating. It will hit 200 degrees, and drop to 175 degrees very quickly.

The water is brown. It looks kinda nasty, I am not burning coolant, and the plugs look fine. Someone at one point used stop leak to fix a leaking radiator. Since then the radiator, thermostat, and coolant was replaced.

I'm not leaking coolant anywhere that I can tell.

[kzbill]

OK cool now I know something,

The heater core is probably plugged up.
Stop leak and dirty water in combination can do that.

Going from 200-175 quickly means the thermostat is opening and allowing the water to cool in the radiator, thats a good thing.

Not Leaking is also a good thing. If there was coolant leaking at the front of the motor, your water pump would probably be on it's way out.

The temperature dropping from 200-175 is also an indication that you have water flow.

You should flush the bad stuff from your cooling system first.
The gunk/stuff in the heater core may or may not come out with a simple coolant system flush and fill.

I have flushed out the heater core alone, but if that doesn't do it you have to replace the core.

[ectonine]

The heater core was not plugged, very good flow. What now?

[kzbill]

hmm.. still do the flush and fill it is a maintenance item.
is there a water valve inline? controled from the dash?
if not I am out of ideas for now I am going to sleep on it. ususally if the flow is good the heat should be to.
I am not a capri guy, but it would seem many things should be the same. sometimes air can be stuck in the core but you have flow.
I just found out that mine has a dash vent that is only for fresh air. only the floor heat and the defroster throw heat.
sorry

[kzbill]

OK I slept on it, then I read heater problems in the forum, I didn't know if your car had a 2-stage thermostat from the factory.
so I looked it up on the web and found that the OEM is a Denso Thermostat. it is a two stage which keeps the water temp from fluctuating fast like you said. you probably have a Stant $6 thermostat in yours. I had one in mine and it didn't heat right either.
I hope this link get you to the picture, but if yours doesn't look like this it is not the original.

http://images.autopartsworld.com/live/G400032147NTC.JPG

Shoulda caught that yesterday but I don't know capri xr2 that well, I had a '76 v6 5 spd capri but that was a long time ago. great car though.

[kzbill]

These are pics of the (1.) OEM Nippon and the (2.) gates single stage

(1) http://images.autopartsworld.com/live/G400032147NTC.JPG

(2) http://images.autopartsworld.com/liv...0241537GAT.JPG
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[ectonine]

Are the Capris like Festivas..they only have heat on the floor, and defroster?

[kzbill]

I don't know, but maybe it does

[F3BZ]

i don't have access to my turbo capri right now (in storage) to verify this but if you determined he feed and return lines as close as possible to the heater core (firewall) with engine warmed up and blower fan on grab the inlet hose to verify that hot water is entering the core and grab the return line to see if it is slightly cooler, cool, or just as hot? i'm speculating that if it is just as hot leaving as entering that a remote possibility would be that the radiating fins on the outside of the core that dissapate the heat to the cabin might be blocked or filled with dust,dirt, whatever. does the airflow from the fan seem right to you?

[kzbill]

oh ya leaves on the core or mice nests