Review on TYC 96006 Replacement Heater Core by Ricky Lahoti

Like the Spectra, it doesn't have the rounded bottom like the OEM heater core in the 2003 Chevy S10 Xtreme 4.3L manual transmission. The heater body in my Xtreme is rounded at the bottom, this heater core is more rounded than the Spectra brand but still doesn't fit properly. I could mount it but when I slide the heater core body cover and insert screws I can't even get the foam on it. It's nice that it comes with foam tape but I wouldn't risk breaking the 18 year old plastic cap to make it fit, that would only cause problems. It's a well-built heater at a great price, but if you own a 2003 S10 Xtreme it's up to you whether you want it to fit. Now I have to wait 3 more days to get the original GM 1560087 heater after I already had to send back the Spectra core as it definitely didn't fit. I'm sure it will work for some S10 models/years but it doesn't fit well enough to use. I'm pretty sure 1560087 will fit as it's the OEM heater core that came stock on my truck. Accessing the heater core enclosure wasn't as bad as most people/videos make it out to be, I just removed the entire dash so I have full access to the firewall. While getting it out I re-taped all the wiring with scotch tape and cleaned the dash and firewall. I also removed all of the foam insulation on the dash and core case to replace with a new one, which is very easy after removing the dash as it only takes a couple of screws to remove the entire air duct from the back of the dash . Good luck to everyone making this replacement and I hope my review helps some people. I would definitely suggest removing your heater core and/or core case to see if the bottom of the case is rounder than mine. I've included pictures of OEM, Spectra, and TYC heater cores. OEM has brown foam tape, Spectra has gray foam tape which I installed and TYC has no foam tape. You should be able to see the difference in the cores clearly, I didn't take pictures of the underside of the heater core case because you probably can't see how it's rounded on the 03ft S10 Xtreme 4.3L. manual transmission. Maybe the car is different but I'm not sure, I highly recommend using Rockauto.com to check which heater core might fit your particular S10 model. As a result, Revain is roughly the same price as Rockauto.