Cold Heater Hoses

[dunoon]

Heater doesn't hardly work. Checked and replaced thermostat, thinking that there might not be one there. The engine warms up fine now about in the middle of the gauge. But, still hoses cold. Checked the pipe from the lower radiator hose, hot till it gets by the distributor. In which direction does the water flow to the heater? In the next couple days I'll pull the hoses and try and flush the heater core, and flush back to the lower raditor hose. Anyone else have a suggestion? Thanks loads.
Rich Davis

[ejp2fast]

Checked the pipe from the lower radiator hose, hot till it gets by the distributor.

first off Rich, welcome to the forum. the water direction flows from the top of the radiator, through the thermostat housing, then to the heater core, then to the bottom hose, and then radiator... you mention the distributor.. you may mean something else.. the distributer is part of the ignition where your plug wires connect to..
what type of thermostat did you install? where did you get it? these little cars don't have much heat to begin and this is important. OEM dual stage thermostats are the way to go for heat.

[FB71]

the water direction flows from the top of the radiator, through the thermostat housing, then to the heater core, then to the bottom hose, and then radiator...

???

I think you've got that a bit turned around....

The thermostat discharges water from the head and block into the top tank of the radiator. The water flows down to the bottom tank, where it's sucked up by the pump, and pushed into the block and head. The heater circuit is parallel to the radiator, but not controlled by the thermostat. Water is disharged from the head, thru the intake manifold located water outlet, into the core, and returned to the curcuit thru the metal tube the runs along the lenth of the engine from the transmission to the water pump.

If you have no hot coolant circulating thru the heater, first remove the hoses and flush with a garden hose. If water is difficult to get to flow thru the core, then that's your problem, a clogged core. If the core flows well, the impeller fins on the water pump may be eroded, and not properly circulating coolant.

[GenevaDirt]

if the hose is cold by the distributor....maybe the thermostat is sticking or in backwards and not letting the water flow through. Just a guess.

[jglutz]

Welcome to the site Dunoon

Do you know that hot air will only flow from the defrost or floor vents...not from the panel/dash vents.

[FB71]

good point Joe!! He didn't specify where he was expecting to come from!

[FestYboy]

..states that the hoses to and from the core are cold.

[snq]

i drove around for a few months before i figured out the vent thing. just ridiculous