HEATING TIPS

[scitzz]

Make sure you have a 195 degree tstat.

[kzbill]

Too many problems

OK so i know nothing... i read all this and im still confused.... my heat sucks is it how its suoposed too be or is there somehting wrong? i noticed someone saying the face vents don't blow hot air, if so thats shame is there any way too fix that? and i don't wanna out cardboard behind the grill cause my temp gauge doesn't work. and i don't know how too fix it.... side note is there any way too make a site attached too this about my car so i can just list all my problems? and have people help me? cause i don't know where too start!

Start at the begining.

[kzbill]

Also if you have a problem someone else did too. start by spending a lot of time reading the posts on the repair forum.
There are answers here to just about every problem you can find on your car. it will, however, take some effort on your part to read the posts. there are over 50 pages of posts and many repeats of problems, different solutions, both permanent and temporary fixes for anything you could have gone wrong.

[Bert]

This is a really old post but plenty relevant enough, still. Blocking off the rad/2-stage thermostat etc. etc. have been done with all of the Festys I've driven over the past 10 years and yet decent heat is always in short supply whenever it is really cold. Was -14F (-26C) this morning and I tried something different. At uniform 50mph the temp gauge never got into the "normal operation" zone of the gauge during a 10 mile run. Repeating that route 2 hours later I intentionally did not shift into 5th and this time around the temp gauge did move up (barely) and register on the gauge.
My simple suggestion: If it's bitter cold keep the revs up to about 2800-3000 instead of the usual 2200-2400. Fuel economy sucks anyway whenever it's cold and even leaving the car running in the driveway for 10 minutes has little effect towards warming up the insides.

[drddan]

Flush , flush, flush ...not your toilet, but the whole cooling system ...with Cascade! Yeah! The stuff ya put in a dishwasher! lol

Not joking, this works!

But sometimes, with these old festys, some of that crap doesnt come out! You system IS full of crap!

But I have an insight that dont get mentioned here a lot
Last winter I blew the radiator up trying to get up a hill in an ice/snow storm

When I relpaced the radiator. I gots heat! Just before winter, I had flushed with Cascade, it helped a little, but not all that much.
But what a difference after the radiator change!!!!!

I get hot now, and have to turn it down, except on single digit days
Have to take off the dash to get to the heater core, which will also be full of crap, but i'm sure if you did, your heat would really great!

My heat also gets hot faster. 5 min and its blowing warm.

[iriegnome]

The proper 2 stage t-stat, proper coolent amount, cleared and purged cooling system and you are golden. My car warms up in about 10 minutes here in the upper midwest where we have been hit with -54 degree windchill days. Today it is only 4 degrees without windchill and she warmed up wonderfully..

[defprun]

^Running more coolant than water helps^

[Bert]

I don't need, and wasn't asking for, advice. I've been playing this 'frostbite game' ever since my parents bought a brand-spanking new Festy 22 years ago. They complained, right from the very first winter, that the heater sucked an egg when it got cold outside.
All I did yesterday was 'think outside the box' by keeping the revs up instead of searching for the typical mechanical/electronic excuses to change thermostats etc etc etc. Worked! This morning was even colder (-28C) -18F so I repeated yesterday's experiment. I held to normal driving revs (in around 2000) all the way out (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th) at 6am this morning and never saw the needle budge and then 3 hours later did that same run again but intentionally kept every gear at 3000 rpm and actually managed to achieve lower end of operating temperature on the gauge within a mile of starting out.
Still frosty inside the car after all this but a 5-10 degree improvement in cabin temperature makes a significant difference on driver comfort, and towards windshield defrost.
I don't want to broach fuel economy with regard to temperatures like this but needless to say I'm only getting 150 miles (instead of summertime 300) out of a tank of Premium (no Ethanol!) at the moment. Noisy winter tires and synthetic fluids and grease are in and on everything in this car.

[Bert]

^Running more coolant than water helps^

I've heard this many times before! Even tried once! If Prestone has an inherent 'BTU storage' capacity that far exceeds good old H2O then what you're claiming might actually 'hold water'. 60/40 is already the standard 'mix' for these things and if you foolishly go any higher towards the proportion of antifreeze to water the cooling/heating system will fail because Prestone (and any of those additives) 'gel' and consequently no longer circulate or flow properly at frigid temperatures.