Heater Hose Placement

[Mike Wenrich]

Need to know the orientation of the heater hoses from the heater core to the engine. Asked this last night on the plenum ordeal but did not get an answer so I'm asking for someone to advise if the heater hose off the engine head goes to the top connection on the core. I forgot to label these when I pulled them off. It may not matter as the water just goes in and out of the core but I don't want to have to go back into this dark and remote place. Almost done with this rebuild. Appreciate someone popping the hood of their 3rd gen 2004 and letting me know. Thanks.

Mike

 

[MGreer]

Need to know the orientation of the heater hoses from the heater core to the engine. Asked this last night on the plenum ordeal but did not get an answer so I'm asking for someone to advise if the heater hose off the engine head goes to the top connection on the core. I forgot to label these when I pulled them off. It may not matter as the water just goes in and out of the core but I don't want to have to go back into this dark and remote place. Almost done with this rebuild. Appreciate someone popping the hood of their 3rd gen 2004 and letting me know. Thanks.

Mike

 

[Ozymandias]

Top connection because it goes cross on the inside of the heater plenum.
Normally it is always Top line = Return line, but not in this specific situation we find in the Gen3.

 

[Mike Wenrich]

Pictures are worth a thousand words as they say. Thanks to both. Just for my education, does it really matter? By that I mean does it matter to the heater core? Fluid goes in one inlet and comes out the other. As long as the hoses route the fluid from the pump to the core and back into the engine, is I think the way it goes. Maybe it's the other direction. It must be more complicated than that but my pea brain is not picking up on it. I should get the hoses back on tomorrow. Tree cutting all day today and I'm beat. At least they will go back the way they were. It's really hard to see the hose connections on my truck. The insulation on the firewall and air inlet bulkhead above them blocks the view. Don't know how MGreer got such a good picture. But it's representative of how crowded it is up there. MOPAR must have a special set of pliers to attach these clamps. What a PIA. Again my thanks.

 

[slowmover]

Pictures are worth a thousand words as they say . . . MOPAR must have a special set of pliers to attach these clamps. What a PIA. Again my thanks.

https://ricksfreeautorepairadvice.com/best-hose-clamp-pliers/

As the wise man said, “The tool IS the job”.

.

 

[seafish]

I have been much less frustrated working on coolant syatems since I added a pair of these remote spring clamp locking pliers to my toolbox
available for $15 on Amazon

 

[Ozymandias]

The flow direction is important to get the air bubble out, it needs to be bottom to top inside the core.

 

[Mike Wenrich]

I thought about this after posting only because a neighbor did this job on a 2015 because of a heater core leak and has had trouble since then with an air bubble. Getting heat has sometimes been a problem. Also the systems that have a valve to shut off the water flow, unlike our 2004's that have hot water going thru all the time. So it makes sense now and thanks for the response and furthering my edu-ma-cation. Also thanks to Seafish for the tip on the tool. I will look into this today.

 

[Mike Wenrich]

Slowmover...I looked at the videos on the tools and like both of the pliers. A local mechanic has one of the remote spring clamp pliers but I have not seen the Knipex before. For the tight space I'm working in on this core those might be better for the job. I'm just not sure at this point if I can get the pliers into that area. I believe so but I will say I probably could not have used those when removing the hoses because the springs were clocked to around 12 instead of 3 o'clock. A real ***** to get them off with a variety of pliers I have. The only ones that worked are a pair of oversized slip joint pliers that allowed me to move the springs. Go figure, I bought new MOPAR hoses and when I tried moving the springs on those they fell apart. Made in India. I have some other pliers that may work to get the hoses on today but I'm definitely adding the Knipex to my toolbox if I can find them. Also the spring clamp pliers. At $15 bucks how could I go wrong? Unless made in India. Appreciate the tool tip.