My Shoes are Smoking!!!!

[R W Burgess]

Would anyone like to explain to me why my 307 Oldsmobile powered vehicles have such strong heaters? After morning startups, even at below freezing, each one of my Olds powered cars have heat within 2 minutes. 2 engines are in 80's model Olds, and a 3rd is in a Chevy wagon.

It doesn't take long for the wife to say, turn the heater down. This from a woman who could put the hurts on the devil's H/A/V system down below trying to keep her warm.:cool:

Of course by the time she has said this, I am already contemplating dressing down to my underwear, to devil with the public's embarrassment.

No smart manliness comments now.

I am not complaining, but just wondering why the rest of the auto industry couldn't do half as well. My newer Chevy Suburban's heater pales in comparison.

Wayne

[rocketraider]

It's an Oldsmobile thang, Wayne!

My Custom Cruiser with Tempmatic will do the same thing. Since its vacuum check relay is bad, meaning it stays stuck in full hot, I have a golf tee plumbed into its vacuum source line. It gets too hot, I take the tee out and it fails back to full cold. If you have a Tempmatic that runs way hot compared to its temp setting, you may have a programmer issue.

I had an 81 Pontiac wagon with manual control HVAC that also had a tremendous heater. I rarely ran the temp lever past about 2/3 way toward hot. So, I think it's more an 80s B/C body thang than just Oldsmobile.

I've said this may times. Anyone who says GM built nothing but junk in the 1980s never owned a B or C platform car. Well- maybe some Cadillac C cars were junky. They had a lot of gadgetry that simply had not been tested thoroughly before the General unleashed it. But a Chev-B-O-P full size car? Among the best cars GM ever built.

[R W Burgess]

All three of mine are cable operated. You can't even think of any level adjustment past 1/2 way after normal warmup.

I'll also say that they are the fastest starting engines of all time, well, in the 80's era at any rate.

Wayne

[joe_padavano]

I'm sure part of the reason is the higher temperature thermostat for emissions reasons. Another is that the 307 is a thinner wall casting than most Olds motors, thus the quicker heat transfer. I will say, however, that with the dozens of Olds powered vehicles I've owned over the decades, the 307 is the only Olds engine that is subject to entrapped air pockets in the cooling system when you drain and refill it. Maybe this is more a function of the design of the 1977-1990 HVAC system, but it usually takes a couple of days after a coolant change for the system to top itself off by sucking additional coolant out of the overflow tank. I have the 84 Custom Cruiser, the recently-acquired 85 D88, and the 307-powered 86 Caprice wagon and all have the same issue.

[Guest]

Some other makes use a purge bolt in the intake manifold crossover to bleed off trapped air. On cars without you stand the the car at a 30 plus degree angle and slowly fill the cooling system up with the engine running to purge the air. All GM cars seem to have good heater systems. I use a dual ( along with analog gauges ) temp sender for the idiot lights. The sender was standard on many GM products when they first went to idiot lights. The dual sender cars have a cold and a hot light. The cold light goes out at 114 degrees and the hot light comes on a 240 degrees. My 69 455 Pontiac and my 76 Olds both have those as replacement sensors. You would be surprised how fast the cold light goes out even in seventeen degree weather. The Pontiac has a RA4 intake with no heat crossover, no choke, no ATC air cleaner and no TVS switch to the distributor. But still gives heat in less than a minute and takes less than five minutes idling for the cold light to go off. If you drive the car straight away it's less than two minutes for the green light to go out. Now my air cooled cars are a different story! BTW, Nissan trucks in the past have very good heating/cooling systems because they used the same units from passengers cars. With just a cab to heat and cool instead of a whole car you can be toasty in no time.

[CarFreak]

A while back I had a pair of 66 Toros, one was nice for summer and the other I picked up for parts but in reality was too good to disassemble, at least until I put some more miles on it.

The 'winter beater' had a bit of rust around the windshield which meant sometimes you'd get snow in your face but the heater would melt your books.

Wayne, I agree with your comment about the heater in a newer Suburban. Have a 1996 and recently picked up a 2007 to replace it. Both are 5.7l Vortecs but the 96's heater is much better.

Edited April 1, 2013 by CarFreak (see edit history)

[R W Burgess]

For comparison guys, I have owned an 80 Chevy wagon, 84, 89, and 90 Caprice sedans, and neither had what I call a great heater. The GM pickups, 80, 90, 2000, and the present 2005 are/were even worse than the Olds powered units I spoke. That is the first thing I noticed about the Olds. I'll take the shortage of horsepower any day to keep the wife warm.

Thanks guys!

Wayne

[joe_padavano]

I'll take the shortage of horsepower any day to keep the wife warm.

Uh, Wayne, there are OTHER ways to do that.