I have had some issues with a little overheating lately not to severe just running 190-200 and it will sometimes happen then sometimes wont so since all my other parts are new in the cooling system I am lead to believe it is the heater core. I was looking at how to access a 1969 el camino heater core and it was saying that I have to remove the inner fender, the glove box, the vent ducting and the dash to get the heater core out. Is this the easiest way?

Appreciate your help guys thank you,
69camino

The heater core can not cause the engine to overheat.

I have had some issues with a little overheating lately not to severe just running 190-200 and it will sometimes happen then sometimes wont so since all my other parts are new in the cooling system I am lead to believe it is the heater core. I was looking at how to access a 1969 el camino heater core and it was saying that I have to remove the inner fender, the glove box, the vent ducting and the dash to get the heater core out. Is this the easiest way?

Appreciate your help guys thank you,
69camino

You don't have to remove the entire inner fender. About half of the bolts from the rear to the front to make way for motor and core. It's actually easier than from inside ----- if it can even. Be done from inside. But I don't think so. I have new fan motor on the bench and it should easy to do. But I still have to drop the inner to do it.
Randy

Do you smell coolant when the heater is on? Is you Elco loosing coolant? I'm assuming you have an A/C car... I didn't have to remove the inner fender or the dash on my non-A/c El Camino.

Garrett,

Like Dean said, the heater core cannot cause overheating. Don't waste your time screwing with it. About the only way it possibly could is if it were leaking and you lost an appreciable amount of coolant. But if that were the case, you would definitely know about it.

You don't say under what conditions you sometimes run a "little" hot. Idling? Stop and go traffic? There are guys on this site that would kill to have their engine temperature peak at 190 - 200 degrees. Some might disagree, but personally, I don't think that you have an issue to be concerned with.

Rich

Actually to remove the core it is done from the inside (having to do it right now due to a cracked inlet tube). Like mentioned before, you need to remove the back bolts of the inner fender well to drop it so you have access to the bottom stud closet to the fan motor and then remove the 5 nuts around the fan motor shroud. Also the 2 heater hoses will have to be removed also.
From the inside you need to unplug the electrical plug on top of the heater box and I removed the screws holding the glove box interior to the door but did not remove the door. This gave me room to move things around.
I was able then to pull the interior box off the firewall from the passenger side and lay it on the floor board and remove the 2 retaining screw for the tab closet to the inlet and outlet pipes. It just pops out from there but still a lot of work unless you have a leak like I did.
That is how the factory manual stated how to do it (other then taking off all the control lines which does not look easy so you can pull it out of the car) and I cannot see how you can get the heater core out from the firewall side since the 2 heater pipes have seperate holes and no room to work it out without removing the interior box.