i live in the climate of Winnipeg aka Winterpeg Canada, its been avg temps rite now are -25 to -35!
i was wondering if there was any tricks on increasing the heat in my lil' bugger? the heats not bad when she's warmed up, but i think it could be better...?
i've done a antifreeze change this fall.
let me know what you guys think.

There are thermostats on the market that are rated higher than the stock replacements, I'm not sure where to get them, but I'm sure they're not at the dealer. A couple numbers are popping up in my head, stock is around 160ish degrees, and the higher aftermarket is 190ish maybe?? I can't remember exactly.
Something else to do, is clean out your heater core by removing the 2 hoses at the fire wall, and spraying water through one of the pipes, and water and junk squirts out the other. A member here did this to his sister's tracker, and it made a difference.
You could also clean out the blower box, and blower motor, use compressed air on the blower motor to get off any thick dust, that may be slowing it down.

Seems like alot of people have this problem.  Mine seems to work great the only problem i have is i dont have any low speeds for the heater motor.  Its either off or on high.  there is no low. 
Any ideas.

i would say try blowing out the heater core to solve your problem

sounds like I might need to do the same "spring cleaning of the heater"  lol 

Mine seems to work great the only problem i have is i dont have any low speeds for the heater motor.  Its either off or on high.  there is no low. 

You might check the switch at were you change the fan speed for that problem.  I had the same prob  and had to wedge it so the the switch made contact with all the relays.   if you give me some time I could try to take some pics for ya ........but its pretty simple.

remove the face plate at the switch, then unscrew the center dash cover, pull out the cover and you might see that there is a slight crack at the switch which means that it's not getting full conection at all the positions.  hope that helps you out poorboy   

hey thanks
ill take a look at it.

i was thinking of changing the thermostats, i wasen't sure from the pervious owners change it or not, so i might give that a try.
never really thought of blowing the motor box or moter... where exactly is located?

There are thermostats on the market that are rated higher than the stock replacements, I'm not sure where to get them, but I'm sure they're not at the dealer. A couple numbers are popping up in my head, stock is around 160ish degrees, and the higher aftermarket is 190ish maybe?? I can't remember exactly.
Something else to do, is clean out your heater core by removing the 2 hoses at the fire wall, and spraying water through one of the pipes, and water and junk squirts out the other. A member here did this to his sister's tracker, and it made a difference.
You could also clean out the blower box, and blower motor, use compressed air on the blower motor to get off any thick dust, that may be slowing it down.

Whatever you do, don't upgrade to the V6.  Takes twice as long to get heat up as the 2.0 did.  And my 1.6 in the '96 was super quick to heat, too.  Stupid V6.  I hate it.

Higher temp thermostat would be the right answer if there is one, although the old cardboard-in-front-of-part-of-the-radiator trick may do you some good too.  You can also move the lever to recirculate the cabin air rather than bring in fresh air.

Thinking about this more, and since you don't know what maintenance the previous owner did, you might just try installing a new stock thermostat.  The one you have may be sticking open.  SUPER cheap thing to try first.

one step at a time i guess.
i figured the cardboard trick in the front of the rad, but i think i'm goin to change the thermostate as well.

i guess i stated the obvious, thanks again for all the info guys!
really appriciate it!

sounds like I might need to do the same "spring cleaning of the heater"  lol 

Quote

Mine seems to work great the only problem i have is i dont have any low speeds for the heater motor.  Its either off or on high.  there is no low. 

You might check the switch at were you change the fan speed for that problem.  I had the same prob  and had to wedge it so the the switch made contact with all the relays.

More than often with this problem is the fan speed resistor pack, it's mounted in the blower box, accessible from the outside, has a 4-wire connector plugged into it. They're about $30 bux new. The blower box is on the passenger side, behind the glovebox, this is mounted right on top, in the front. It's hard to miss

Quote from: Mczuki on December 06, 2006, 06:27:25 PM

sounds like I might need to do the same "spring cleaning of the heater"  lol 

Quote

Mine seems to work great the only problem i have is i dont have any low speeds for the heater motor.  Its either off or on high.  there is no low. 

You might check the switch at were you change the fan speed for that problem.  I had the same prob  and had to wedge it so the the switch made contact with all the relays.

More than often with this problem is the fan speed resistor pack, it's mounted in the blower box, accessible from the outside, has a 4-wire connector plugged into it. They're about $30 bux new. The blower box is on the passenger side, behind the glovebox, this is mounted right on top, in the front. It's hard to miss

hey thanks ill check it out

With my old Gremlin, a pizza box between the grill and the radiator was standard winter driving equipment...

winch bumper does act as a self heater for the rad. but i also have an eletric fan and in teh winter i turn the fan up a bit so the temp runs just under half on the guage before it cuts in and tends to make the heaters nice and hot