Rear Heater Delete.

[mbc]

In my quest to strip down this Van into a lean, mean, obsolete machine, I've been removing broken and / or unused parts to remove clutter in the engine bay and surrounding areas.

So, my next task is to simplify the cooling system on my Van, I've decided to remove the rear heater assembly and use bulk hose and brass barbs to re-route the hoses. Use of the rear heater has never yielded cooler engine temps, so it goes.

Does anybody have any experience with this task? I plan on crawling underneath to figure it out, but as always, it's a good idea to ask.

Second, I've noticed no section in the FSM that deals with the heater(s) and their layouts. is there one?

mbc

[timsrv]

I've never removed a rear heater, but it should be pretty basic. Just follow the 2 heater hoses back to the source and remove, then place a shorter hose that travels between the 2 empty nipples. You could always just put a barbed coupler in place of the absent heater core, but having all that extra hose between that location and the engine sort of defeats the quest for lean and uncluttered.

Perhaps I missed that section in the FSM, but as I recall there seems to be a lack of information regarding the heater cores and their associated plumbing. Good luck and have fun! Tim

[skyflyer9]

If you can't see the edges of the pictures, right-click and view them individually...













(tags: bypass heater coolant hose of death replace )

[timsrv]

Nice! Thanks skyflyer!

[mbc]

Thanks skyflyer!

I want to get rid of all of the piping and hosing in the bottom photo as well. This diagram will help me a bunch.

matt

[skyflyer9]

Good luck with it - would love to see some pics of the system in its environment before you rip it out!

[mbc]

Thanks for again for posting the pics. I'll post plenty pics of the project; before and after.

I'm leaving on vacation this weekend and I just secured two more jobs for when I return, so the project might have to wait a couple of weeks.

matt

[skyflyer9]

Like you, I'm in the process of stripping down my vans to their essentials, and the rear heater system on my '84 seems useless. I'll be interested in seeing the process, as I'd love to strip the dead weight out since I never use the rear heater anyway.

I removed the A/C system on my '87 - it didn't quite work and I never use and don't care about A/C (I'll never be selling the van either). I figure I lightened the van's load by at least 100lbs, and opened up the engine compartment quite a bit. Pretty much a win-win!

[glohworm]

Simply a very classy post Sky, nicely done!

Gary

[llamavan]

Per request ... coolant hoses in situ!

http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/s...&p=321#post321

[Busyboy]

I've never removed a rear heater, but it should be pretty basic. Just follow the 2 heater hoses back to the source and remove, then place a shorter hose that travels between the 2 empty nipples. You could always just put a barbed coupler in place of the absent heater core, but having all that extra hose between that location and the engine sort of defeats the quest for lean and uncluttered.

Perhaps I missed that section in the FSM, but as I recall there seems to be a lack of information regarding the heater cores and their associated plumbing. Good luck and have fun! Tim

So, true. I hate to say it, but I could find anything substantial on Toyota Van removal of heater core, mine is plugged with a mouse nest from the previous owner. I replaced the blower motor brushes, after removing the entire dash and loosening the main cross brace, and air flows, but no heat. Unless the radiator is almost dry it means that dang mouse built two nest. One in the fan, and one over the heater core.

[timsrv]

Since my last post in this thread, I've had the opportunity to delete the rear heater in my van. I didn't remove the core or most of the rear heater hose/pipe, but I did take it out of commission (easier than dealing with potential leaks). The highlights of how I did it are in the quote below. Note, to get to the original thread/post, just click on the blue arrow at the beginning of the quote. Tim

Next I jack it up and change out all the old front heater hoses. I don't use the rear heater (never have). I don't want to invest time or money in something I don't use, nor do I want to risk overheating my new engine due to a 25+ year old heater hose failure, so I decide to eliminate the rear heater system. All I care about is taking it off-line, so I simply cut the metal pipe here & plumb my front engine heater hose outlet directly to the metal pipe (left arrow). I simply ignore the open hose on the back. This will no longer carry coolant.


On the driver's side I use my mini pipe cutter here (same thing as I did on the passenger's side)


I cut out & remove the stuff aft of this cut point.


I attach a 5/8" ID heater hose here. Since there is no barb or flare on the tip of the pipe, I slide it on further than normal and use 2 hose clamps. I like the small ones as they put more even pressure on hose (small flat spot). I use 2 clamps & alternate flat spots to minimize the chance of a future leak. Same thing is done on Passenger's side.


Ready for engine installation! Here's where the other end of the driver's side heater hose goes.


Engine going in.


Here's the parts I removed from the system.