Sounds good PAT, Please post some Pics.

And the insanely expensive, but perhaps permanent fix, is silicone hose.

You can see, bottom hose (Part number 19038) from core goes to water pump, top hose from core (Part number 19039) goes to t-stat housing. Hoses are just the listed parts for any 97+ XJ. I bought these rather than "by the foot" since the I.D.'s differ on each end of the hose and I a proper fit was worth $10-15 to me.

Simple, easy upgrade. Mine wasn't leaking, but the idea of stagnant coolant eating away at my (probably OEM) core all summer was enough to convince me to do the upgrade. So far it's been perfect.

Tips for the install:
- I had issues getting the old hoses off the core and was concerned with trying to pull or force it since AFAIK the core is original, so I very carefully cut the rubber with a new razor blade. It took longer than it might have, but I was willing to take the extra time to ensure I didn't booger up the core.
- If you've got both hoses off the core, now's a great time to do a low pressure flush backwards and forwards on it.

Otherwise it was super easy - I highly recommend it for anyone who still has the HCV.

Looks Good THANX.

This.

There is no reason to mess with that stupid heater valve. They eliminated them for good reasons.

I just used heater hose. One is 3/4" and one is 5/8". I don't remember which is which, but it will be obvious when you get in there. Just pick up 5' of each and cut to fit. Problem solved.

Looks great, but doesn't it dump heat into the cabin all the time?

No. You only get heat into the cabin whenever the heater controls are set to whichever mode, or vent, you select. The blend doors are closed if nothing is selected, so no heat comes thru.

As fb97xj1 said, absolutely not. I did the elimination over 2 years ago when I first got my 95, at the end of last summer I fixed the A/C and I get nice cold A/C in the summer and nice warm heat in the winter. Also, bear in mind that the FACTORY setup for 97+ is what you're recreating on a pre 97 XJ with the elimination.

It's always possible that the seal on the blend door could rot away and you'd get a bit of heat leaking through, but my XJ is 24 years old with presumably the original HVAC setup and has over 320k miles on the body and get zero heat leaking when the slider is on "cold".

I removed my HCV on my 96 as well but I didn't plug up that little vacuum hose. The other day I was wondering what the heck it was so now I know and I'll plug it up. Jeep seems to be running fine so not sure if it will run even better with this hose plugged.

Any idea what sort of things happen by NOT having that vacuum line not plugged? I've been running it that way for 4 months.

I'm not sure, but considering that the vacuum eventually runs back to the engine, I'd definitely expect that you'll run better with it plugged. Certainly it won't run worse!

You may find the HVAC setting (where the air output is routed) will be more responsive if nothing else.

We have forum members who live in Arizona who have done this and find no problem.

It is the permanent fix. Nobody knows how long silicone heater hoses will last because none have ever died of old age.

I found some Copper pipe and used that. It works good for now

I thought those hoses were supposed to cross over at some point?

this. At the 4.5 month point.