I would almost guarantee that if you drove your car year-round, with normal
use of the heater, this problem would not develop (to this extent --
however, some clogging of the heater valve is not uncommon). Otherwise,
maybe if you set the valve to the open position before putting the car to
bed for the winter...
--
Max Heim
'66 MGB GHN3L76149
If you're near Mountain View, CA,
it's the primer red one with chrome wires
on 6/28/05 4:29 PM, John Hunt at johnhunt@cse.ogi.edu wrote:
> When the mornings got cool last fall I turned the heater control on my '68
> MGB but I only got cold air from the heater. The control wire moved the
> water valve as expected, but with no effect on the heat. I assumed that
> the valve was stuck or that the heater core was clogged up somehow. I
> decided to postpone the repair until a nice day in the spring. I bundled
> up when driving until it was time to put the car in storage for the
> winter.
>
> The nice day in the spring eventually arrived. I flushed the heater core:
> it was fine and had no sediment. The coolant that I drained from the
> radiator looked fine.
>
> When I removed the heater valve it was abundantly clear why I got no heat.
> The throat of the valve was absolutely packed with pasty white, gray and
> yellow-green crud. The same crud was in the water passage hole in the
> block, but it was only about 1/4" deep and easily removed.
>
> The crud in the valve extended maybe 1/2" deep. I easily removed it
> by picking at it with a screwdriver.
>
> I put in a replacement valve from Moss and I was rewarded with plenty of
> heat. The old valve was in service perhaps 10 years. I installed it
> around 1995 just as a preventive-maintenance measure since the original
> valve had been in service since 1968.
>
>
> A graphic nasty shot of the valve with crud can be seen at:
>
>
> http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~johnhunt/heater_valve.jpg
>
>
> Has anyone seen this sort of crud develop? I am using normal Valvolene
> coolant at 50% concentration. I store the car from November-April and use
> the heater only in the spring and fall.
>
> Maybe it is corrosion that develops near the cast iron block - aluminum
> heater valve vicinity and collects there due to the restricted area and
> only occasional use of the heater?
>
> Any suggestions for brands of coolant that might help avoid future
> corrosion?
>
>
> John Hunt
> Portland, OR
> '68 MGB
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