Heat Exchanger Removal

[Gene Wesolaski]

Greetings,

Is pulling the engine (356A) necessary to replace the heat exchangers?

Thanks In Advance,
Gene Wesolaski

[Doug McDonnell]

See the late Ab Tiedemann's third paragraph in this link for one of the best quotes I have ever seen on the subject: viewtopic.php?t=36826

[Geoff Fleming]

Well...can it be done? The answer is yes, as I have done it,( quite a while ago). Should it be done...probably not. Very hard to access the 12mm nuts that are at the front of the engine, especially the lower two. It requires a lot of patience. However, if you can't lower the engine it may be the way to go. In my case, the work was made even more difficult since a previous owner had used 13mm nuts, which take up more of the free space needed for a wrench. Grrrr.
You first remove the muffler, then undo the 10mml bolts that hold the flapper box to the sheet metal, the aforementioned front exhaust bolts are removed. Now you can pull the flapper box and J tube away. Don't forget to re-install the exhaust gaskets before you put the new J tube back or you will resort to some colorful language, having to go back and re-do the work in that rather tight spot!

[Ron LaDow]

Like replacing an oil cooler with the engine in place, yes it is possible. I've done it and others have also.
But I ask for a show of hands: Who has done it twice?

[Gene Wesolaski]

All,

Thank you.

Gene

[Geoff Fleming]

Ron,
Yes, I've done that too but hardly recommend it as the way to go! Another thing I did, ( a few times), back 'in the day', was removal of a cylinder head while the engine was in the car. Talk about insanity! Lack of a place to work and access to a jack or lift necessitated that procedure. Hardest part was getting the head bolt washers off and on while the engine was in position, as they wanted to fall into the nether regions unless great care was taken.
Nice to know these thing can be done but removing the engine is by far, the easiest way to go.

[David Jones]

I think that like Geoff, anyone who has done the heat exchanger removal both ways will say that doing it in the car is only done when it is virtually impossible to pull the engine. Like changing spark plugs on a 4 cam, pulling the engine is the easy option.

[Doug McDonnell]

I still think the late Ab said it best" If the requirement is for the heat exchanger, the process is more involved , but I have removed one of these without removing the muffler. It is tricky, of course, much like changing a transmission on the side of a road by the glimmer of a single street light."

[Geoff Fleming]

Maybe a case to support the old adage, "With age comes wisdom."? More likely, "What was I thinking?"!

[Alan Pershing]

Removed and replaced both my heat exchangers (on a 1961 B) yesterday without removing the engine or the muffler; it does take some patience but can be done and it didn't take that long (relatively speaking). The tricky part is the upper nut but I was able to put a socket on a long extension rod and get a ratchet wrench on it. Once you get that in place, the upper nut came off pretty easily. The bottom nut you can see (with a lot of light) and that comes off with an open end wrench and a lot of little turns. There is a gasket on the opening that needs to stay in place. Take off the heating tube and then pull the entire heat exchanger towards the front of the car and it slides out.

The hardest part was installing the new exchanger and getting the openings to line up on the flapper box because the tolerances are unforgiving in the extreme; again, being patient and using a rubber mallet and a piece of wood you just keep tapping and adjusting until it lines up and it will slide on.

These are the style I replaced:

[David Jones]

Alan you are inclined towards the masochistic side of the hobby.

[Alan Pershing]

Guilty as charged...