Well, my heater core managed to hold on through the winter but it has started smelling more and more like coolant over the past week. Two days ago I went to use the heater during a downpour, and the windows fogged up soooo badly with antifreeze vapors (and if you know what I am talking about, you know how that **** smears all over the place if you try to wipe it).

Even just driving it normally with the heat off, the windshield starts to fog up like crazy when I park it. I taped up the defrost vent with masking tape to hopefully help, but the vapors destroy the adhesive it seems. Not going to use a stronger tape because my dashboard is in really good shape otherwise. There is no coolant in the cab, so its not leaking that badly at least.

I dont really have the time to dedicate to pulling the whole dash out, and I can deal with not having heat for a little while as it has warmed up in Colorado. What is the proper method of bypassing the heater core?

I was thinking of going to Napa, getting some generic heater core hose, and just routing it in a U-shape to connect the inlet/outlet on the water pump. Sound safe enough??

 

I've seen that done a lot and I don't see why it would be a problem

 

On your '98, all you need to do is get an adapter to hook the two heater core hoses together. I'm not sure of the sizes though

 

5/8" x 11/16"

 

Probably won't find a 5/8" X 11/16" fitting but a 5/8" X 3/4" fitting will work perfect.