Should I go ahead and replace my heater core?

[BigMerc96]

For sure. My '96 had never ending coolant sludge. I know it had never been flushed. I flushed it once or twice and never got it clean. My Town Car was the same way. When I did the intake on it I flushed the heater core and like you I ran water in it draining and refilling daily until it ran clear. Then after I refilled it with correct antifreeze mix, it turned brown again which thoroughly annoyed me. About 6 months later the radiator sprung a leak and of course that meant that it essentially flushed its self until I replaced the radiator. After that its stayed a nice fluorescent green.

[Giraffe]

I think everything ended up settling in the heater core. Everything looked clean after the shop did the flush, and I hopefully got the last of it the other day. It's nice to finally have heat. Just in time for the temperature to warm up in WF again.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

I actually got a coolant filter on my heater core supply line When the core starts to lose its heat output, it's time to change the filter. NAPA filter costs like $10 or something, filter base is a bit more expensive locally (be it from NAPA or a big truck place) but can be had online for cheap. All in all it will run you $40 or less, and you may have a bit of an interesting time packaging it in the engine bay, but it will save you from messing with the heater core, and will eventually clean out all the crap from your coolant system.

[sly]

I actually got a coolant filter on my heater core supply line When the core starts to lose its heat output, it's time to change the filter. NAPA filter costs like $10 or something, filter base is a bit more expensive locally (be it from NAPA or a big truck place) but can be had online for cheap. All in all it will run you $40 or less, and you may have a bit of an interesting time packaging it in the engine bay, but it will save you from messing with the heater core, and will eventually clean out all the crap from your coolant system.

I like this idea. Packing it in a box would be easier than a mod-motor car. More hose to play with.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

Not if you use the factory box hose routing, the supply line is the steel tube going under the intake so unless you lose that and go all external routing there ain't much of a way to fit a filter on there. And installing an inline filter in the return line is just asking for trouble by ways of heater core replacement, lol

[sly]

I'd have to turn the inlet hose back out towards the AC hoses and then run a line back to the heater core. Doable, but convoluted.