Going through my 2000 XK8 that was in garage storage for several years. 95,000 miles. I am in the process of replacing all coolant hoses, most plastic coolant fittings, and updating to aluminum where applicable. The coolant I drained looked very clean and no different than brand new Dexcool.
The coolant passages in the engine look very clean. The heater core inlet/outlet tubes however have some rust deposits one more than the other. Should I be concerned ?

 

No experience with Jaguar heater cores but can tell you from first hand experience that Volvo cores are good for maybe 25 years. Both of my 30+ year old Volvo's had leaking cores.

Great big job to replace.

 

good question, what is the life on heater cores in these cars assuming a maintained cooling system? I assume it is a B to get out?

 

It's almost as if they started with the heater core and built the rest of the vehicle around it.

On a more positive note, I can only recall a handful of failure reports and these have generally been due to neglect.

Graham

 

No big deal . . . I've done a couple . . . on Volvo's. Jaguars might be more complicated.

 

That looks very similar to a photo I took of my 2001 S10 Blazer heater core replacement process. Strange since the earlier S10's are much easier. My 1964 Corvette was about a 1 hour task. Leaving the core in place for my XK8. The orange deposits appear to be something other than "rust" anyway, and since the rest of the system looks so clean I think I am safe.

 

I owned a Volvo 850 Turbo R and it was a 45 minute job. They got better apparently lol.

That car stands out as the easiest heater core I've ever done.