Just a heads up, two parts store heater cores in a row were leaky at the pivot. Some aftermarket heater cores have a pivot to theoretically let it go in without pulling the AC evaporator, but the pivot seal assembly is poorly designed. The sealing surface is not the ID and OD of the pipes, but instead seals on the faces of the flanges. In my truck the deflection of the pipes put pressure on the seal and made it leak.

My advise is to get one WITHOUT the pivots, cut the pipes back so it slips in easily, then run heater hoses all the way through. There are threads here where people cut the pipe and hook it together with a section of hose, but after doing it both ways, I think it's a superior repair to just eliminate a section of pipe.

I'm a cheapskate, so I fixed mine by popping open the pivots, removing the o-rings and TIG welding the pipes to eliminate the leak. These junk parts were a HUGE waste of my time, and after having the dash off 3 times, now I have a crack.

 

........what brands were these that leaked.........thanks.......kim.....

 

Tossed the boxes both times. It didn't start leaking until the air purged from the core, so packaging was gone, but I got one from Napa, and one from Oriely. They appeared identical except for the o-rings were different colors.

It's not the manufacturing, it's the design. Bad design. If it sealed on the ID of the core and OD of the pipes, it would work. But it seals on a face on the core side, and the tension on the seal is from the crimp on the OD, and that is not anywhere near adequate.