Pinto Car Club of America

I have a 1980 pinto wagon, had it apart to long I guess, I cannot find a picture or diagram of where each heater hose connects.Looking from the front of the car at the fire wall my top hose is one piece the botton hose has the mixing valve,some one before me has worked on this car just want to make sure that is correct placement of valve, and where each hose connects to the engine Thanks!

What size engine do you have?

2300 cc

Here are a couple pictures from my 78 crusing wagon before I replaced the engine.  Let me know if you have any other questions...

Thanks that helps!

The heater hose inlet is the bottom hose off the heater core (heater core needs to fill from the bottom, if it filled from the top it would run out the bottom and not transfer very much heat) . On an 80, the inlet hose would go to the thermostat housing and the return hose would go to the water pump. If the hoses were switched you wouldnt have much heat. So if the heater doesnt work very good, try switching the hoses around and try it again. You will have to add a little more coolant to make up for the extra capacity of the heater core if it is hooked up backwards because the core wont fill that way.


Hope this helps you or someone else in the future. I learned this stuff the hard way. For years I wondered why my 76 didnt have crap for heat.

A couple other tips would be a quality corrosion inhibitor in the radiator(I think the long life anti-freeze has it in it) & a manual shut off valve on the heater lines will keep heat from blowing out of the heater in the summer. A/C equipped cars already have one otherwise it would blow warm with the A/C on. The heater core is always full of hot water in the summer & any air passing over the core blows heat out.