OK, I am not new here but it has been a while since I have posted since I have not been driving my truck for over a year. Anyway, I have a heater core problem but I can not afford to fix it, and no one is willing to take payments. A few machanics that I have talked to said that I could just bypass the heater core by detaching the hoses from the heater core and just putting a connector in it to connect the lines. I think I know which ones they are and I can not find a picture in my chiltons manual. Can anyone give me a picture of those line on the engine compartment side on a 1997 F-150 (of course) 4.6 V8 Triton so I know which lines to connect together. Thanks in advance.

 

Are these my heater core hoses since I have not had a responce yet?

 

Are these my heater core hoses since I have not had a responce yet?

https://www.f150online.com/forums/me...ore-hoses.html

For some reason it is not posting my picture so I included a link to my album. Hopfully it will guide you there

 

From the picture it looks like it. You should have two hoses coming out of the fire wall, on mine one goes from the firewall to the crossover and the other is right next to it.

I'm not really familiar with the 4.6 and the differences between it and the 5.4, would the hoses be routed differently? Idk.

Hope this helps.

 

your heater core hoses will exit the firewall on the passenger side of the engine bay. they will be a hard thick rubber, of which the lines you have pictured seem to be the braid fabric ...

 

Well by the time you guys posted, I had already gone and done the bypass. So they did turn out to be the right lines and now I am running fume free. Now to save the money to get a new heater core and new hoses since I had to cut the other one to get them off. No matter how much I squeezed the tabs together, they would not come off so I got frustated and cut them. Thanks to you two for answering though

 

are you sure it isn't just clogged?

 

As mentioned... it might just need a flush. But, if the heater core is indeed bad, take a weekend and do the labor yourself. A person with a minimal amount of tools and basic mechanical intelligence can pull it off - I did! It's just involved and takes time. The heater core itself will cost you between $40-60. SSCULLY did an excellent writeup on this. It's the factory service manual with mechanic's notes and timesaving tips. You don't HAVE to pull the entire dash - just pull the passenger side away - but doing so makes things alot more roomy.

Heres the link:
http://my.voyager.net/~sscully/F-150...50_Exp_002.doc

Good luck!

 

No, it is a leaky heater core. I had it flushed about 4 months ago and even before then, there was stream coming from the vents and the smell of anti-freeze as well but since I did the bypass the smell and the steam have gone. As for doing it myself. It is right behind an ac line so I would need to drain it and I do not have the means to do it myself unless I vent it out in the open which I will not do to be on the safe side. Plus I do not want to tear the dash board out myself.