falcindor

The thing is I dont have a lot of cash. Who can help a brotha out?

RKA

backflush it and see if that removes the gunk

falcindor

Ive already had it at the dealer and they took it apart. They wanted $500 to try something out that may unclog it. $1000 for a new heater core.

RKA

They didn't have everything apart, because that's a 10-12 hour job, and any idiot that goes that far is going to replace the heater core with a new one, no question. So you wouldn't be sitting here telling us about your woes. I don't know what they did when they say they "took everything apart".

Backflush: coolant flows through the core in one direction. Hook up a hose to the outlet, and push pressurized water through the heater core in the opposite direction of normal flow, and hopefully anything jammed in there will flush out and land on the ground (you should be smart enough to disconnect the inlet hose). Both hoses should be accessible near the firewall. This should be a 2 hour job for any mechanic to accomplish. If it doesn't fix the problem or at least make it a little better, then the core probably should be replaced. That's your $1K fix...no way to save money on that, unless you're willing to tear down your entire dashboard yourself.