just a quick question my bruthas. on a 240 is replacing a heater core as hellacious as replacing the blower motor(many hours, hundreds of parts disassembled, shredded hands and multiple f sharps)? maybe they should be done together as a matter of course. thanks tons oldduke

Did the blower motor in the fall of 15', had to go back in March of 16' as the motor went bad, free replacement from FCP, and I had to replace the heater core this time. UGH, and yes, there was cussing, but wait there's more!

While replacing the heater core upon putting it back together I noticed I had it together wrong, so on taking it out a second time the evaporator sprung a leak. More cussing ensued!

The good out of it was that I got to clean all the plastic pieces before re-assembly so the car no longer smells old or musty inside. Took me about 2 weeks to get it all back together and I had no parts left over.

Not something I'd like to do again, but I have a whole better idea on how to do it now and it wouldn't take nearly as long, and most of all, big shout out to Art and Cleanflametrap. I could not have done it as quickly without it.

Thanks Art!

Matt

Flush your cooling system regularly, replace old hoses and pray you never need to do this job! BTW - Cores don't go bad on all high mileage 240's. Ran my 90 240 to 300k and never had to dive into either the heater core or blower motor.

My friend Ed had to replace the heater core on his 740 and I remember that parts were scattered everywhere...

Simple answer. Yes, the heater core is worse. Volvo started with the 240 heater core and built the rest of the car around it...:)

Heater core worse than fan -- absolutely do them together, especially if it's the core that's failed and the fan is original. Fan can be done without entirely disassembling HVAC fan housing or taking out the dash; heater core, not so much.

wow mike- thought the blower motor removal required dismantling the hvac system. have you done the blower motor and it was hellacious? thanks tons oldduke

On my 82 I did it (fan) without taking hvac unit apart - of course the side panels have to come off. Major pain.
--
82 242 6.2L coming...; '15 Honda Fit; '16 Subie X-Trek

hi mike- sure would like to know your shortcuts and tricks on how you got to the fan motor w/o taking apart the hvac conduits, etc in the way. did you cuss? thanks tons oldduke

It's been 15 years -- no tricks/short cuts. Just take the stuff that's in the way out until you get to the 3 bolt flange (as I recall) that holds the fan in. I removed most of the front console (stereo, switchs, etc), removed the two vertical dash supports, disconnected the vacuum valves/ductwork from the side panels on the HVAC housing, cussed like hell popping all the little clips off that hold that side panel onto the big plastic motor/core housing, remove the two squirrel cages, unbolted the fan motor - disconnected the electrics -- and out it came. I probably took the front seat(s) out for easier access. With my replacement motor a little bit (1/4" or so) had to be cut off the 3 plastic bosses that the fan flange mounts to position the motor back where it needed to be. That was covered in the instructions -- think I may have gotten the motor through IPD - not sure though. Motor in, squirrel cages on - make all electrical connections and test motor function -- then put it all back together. Cutting the plastic bosses and removing the side panels was the biggest pain in the ass. If you've got to replace the core - replacing the motor is a piece of cake.

wow mike an epic story. sounds like you skipped s and h and went straight to f maybe even mofo. first one i ever heard say the blower was cake compared to the core. like saying suribachi was cake compared to the bulge. anyway not looking forward to this job when the blower or core craps. going to bookmark this thread so when i do this job i have seal team 6 to bail me out. thanks tons oldduke

After looking at Art's pictures I would be reaching for a can of stop leak...

Greg

wow pulling the dash and removing everything to replace the core and blower motor seems to just about be the mutha of all auto repairs in the 240 probably in all cars for all time. regards oldduke wondering if volvo engineers drank a bottle of t bird or a quart of muscatel before they designed this.

If you can just get this bit....



out of here....



then this....



can go in here....



and end up looking like this....





and working like this....



...and all future repairs, if necessary are TONS easier. Admittedly, this is what can happen if you can just throw the checkbook at it.

Well, neither are "cake" - just one compared to the other is cake. The only reason I think the blower was much easier was because the core required taking the whole dash out. Found out the hard way. The core started leaking -- pulled dash, replaced core. 3 months later the fan started making noise. Wasn't about to pull the dash again....moral of the story -- if you're keeping the car and they're both old, pull the dash and do them both.

Michael, HA! You're correct about the fan motor changing procedure -- but you youngsters have it easy with your late model 240s :-) Back in the "old days" when the 240 had the exposed winding motors the replacement motors with a full housing cover were too big to fit the space. You had to go in with a grinder bit in a drill and ream out the plastic matrix housing. When you got finished you could figure on another hour vacuuming and blowing plastic bits out of the interior. Fun.
The one "trick" to save time would be to leave the outer r/s cover in place and use a hole saw to gain access to the fan blade locking "washer/clip". A long thin screwdriver with a clip hanging on it makes it fairly easy to align the fan with the new motor's r/s shaft and get the clip secured. Duct tape takes care of the hole. -- Dave

And... the '91-93 A/C adds some complication to the task if you don't plan to open the system. Read about my particular adventure with this challenge here:

http://cleanflametrap.com/heater_core/


--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Mom's Law: The most expensive part you replaced was the root cause and true culprit when you explain it to Mama.