Thanks Hattenator.
Your tutorial gave me the encouragement I needed to tackle this job. It only took me a few weeks to get the core out of my 1991 190e 2.3. Yes I am slow and I hope I can remember how it all goes back together again.
Here is what happened: wife was driving home alone at about 40mph when the core blew instantly. Scared the heck out of her because the windows fogged up so fast she almost did not pull over before hitting something. At first she thought the car was on fire and so did a trucker who pulled over with his extinguisher. When she realized it was just steam she cleaned the windshield and called me.Being that she was only a few blocks from home I encouraged her to try to get it home. She made it and left a trail of coolant for 1/2 mile.
The core has a two inch hole in it at the seam of plastic and aluminum. Anyone have that happen to them so suddenly and catastrophically? Coolant was everywhere in the cabin, all the way to the back seats and totally soaked the carpeting. I had to remove all of that and all of the flooring pieces to get a sponge in the nooks and crannies. That stuff never dries up by itself. What a mess
As soon as I order a new core (MBParts has one for $120 and another one for $140 any difference in quality?) I will try to put everything back. It's kinda like Spock's Brain.
By the way, I did not have to remove the steering wheel.
