2013 Ram 1500 cleaning exterior of heater core

[Trikeman]

New to the forum. Like a lot of others, I have a decreased amount of heat on the driver's side. I have flushed the core with minimal, temporary improvement. What I found is that this truck did not come with a cabin air filter, allowing the heater core fins to get clogged up. This was verified with a borescope. Question is, has anyone tried "soaking" the core with a cleaning solution to try and clean this out? Have considered CLR, but am a bit leary. Don't want to wind up having to replace the core.

 

[Tyler_h]

Same issue here.

My first attempt when flushing the core was done from the end of the hoses at the water pump and just used garden hose water. Don't flush from the water pump, it's better to do it right at the heater core. take off your air intake.

But be careful you don't mangle the ends of the heater core like I did. They are super soft and I barely put any force on them to get the hoses off and they still disfigured greatly.

I did pour some clr into the core and let it soak. Some chunks did come out and the heat output improved, but it's still not equal to the heat output on the passenger ger side.

I don't think bits of casting sand would cause the issue with the lack of heat, but I do think corrosion sediment is collecting in the core.

There was only a bit of clr in the jug but it was all I had at the time. Next time I'd use half a jug and let it marinate for a while. I also used an air hose to blow into the core to agitate the solution so the clr bubbles filled the core.

Good luck friend