Got the heater core yesterday. As mentioned , it is branded Murray on the box but the part says Vista Pro.
Anyhoo......I did not take pics......sorry......but.....
Overall it worked fine. But I found that the plate that is soldered to the two pipes , used to secure the pipes to the heater box, was at the wrong angle and also too large on one side....so the core would not seat properly. I also noted that the metal flange on the non-pipe end of the core was soldered to the tanks at a bend rather than flat to the heater box.....
We trimmed the one side of the plate (the side closest to the side of the box when installed) and it was much better a fit, though we struggled a bit. Stands to reason, though, that a new unit will fit slightly differently
than the original unit in the car I guess.
My box has had the holes drilled out and larger bolts/nuts used rather than the stock screws.....so I also had to drill out the 4 holes.
I did notice that the core was not bright and shiny like the pictures show. It doesnt look "used" but it doesnt look "new" either to me.......so not sure what the deal there is. This is the only heater core I have ever swapped out so I am not a good person to ask on that issue. LOL
We got as far as reassembling the heater box and hopefully will install and test this evening or tomorrow.
Luckily I had some extra rope caulk from the first time I cleaned the heater box out 5 years ago.....I forgot about that stuff. Not sure how critical the caulk is....we had to open up the box a few times to tweak the fit so it is not perfect. Only had enough to do the job once....reopening it sort of messes that up. Might be able to use rope caulk from the hardware store rather than the "right" stuff.
