Hello! I recently purchased a 1972 Fiat 850 Spider, and while the car is in overall very good condition, the heater core has been bypassed. The hoses are there ready to be connected, but instead of running through the heater core they’ve just been disconnected and hooked together end to end. It’s possible that the heater core was disconnected to troubleshoot an overheating issue the car used to have, but the previous owner doesn’t know since it was done by the owner before him. Is there any way I can test the heater core before I hook it up? Because it’s an Italian car and it’ll have enough electrical problems without a heater core spraying everywhere if it’s bad lol. Thank you any advice you can give me!
I'd say at least 9 times out of 10 a heater core is bypassed because it is leaking. The only way I know of to test one is to hook it up and see if it leaks. You could try running water through it using a garden hose but depending on how bad it is it might only leak under pressure.
Depending on how tough it is to remove you could remove it to prevent coolant from spraying all over the interior. I did find an online copy of a Fiat 850 sedan shop manual. The Spyder should be pretty much the same mechanically.
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1786919/Fiat-850-Sedan-1968.html
