You most likely have air trapped in the system and an air pocket is blocking flow to the heater. You need to park the vehicle with the radiator cap and reservoir is at the highest point and then idle the motor with the cap loose or off to let the air purge. Eventually this should correct itself after several cold/warm cycles in the coolant.

 

Do you know if the heat worked before your repairs? It's possible that your heater core is plugged as well. They are usually pretty easy to flush out, but definitely try Z15's suggestion first.

 

Another clue that may be the heater core is plugged is that one of the hoses coming out of the heater core is cold and the other one is warm. many people are telling me that they both should be warm, does this mean it does need to be flushed and is plugged?

 

Yeah, that sounds like a heater core blockage.

 

one thing my buddy did was squeeze a tube located in the front of the engine as soon as you open the hood, it would cause HOT air to come through for about 10 seconds, then go back to cool/luke warm air.

This is the best indicator of your problem - because of excess air in the cooling system, the heater core is just not getting the flow it needs. If the heater core were blocked, squeezing a heater hose would not cause the heater to put out heat. The act of squeezing the heater hose temporarily overcame the air lock. Chck your radiator cap for proper function, and the overflow tube into the overflow tank - is there sufficient coolant in the overflow tank to cover the bottom of the overflow tube?

 

It was in fact a clogged heater core! Extremely easy to fix, just unhooked the hoses and used a hose to blow through the heater core until it came out steadily. Thank you so much guys! All your input helped to fix the problem. Definitely nice to have heat again, its pretty cold in upstate NY this time of year!

 

Be sure to flush it through both ways until the water runs clear. If not, it may plug back up soon

 

NYsteve is right......

I had the same problem in my 97 camaro, I flushed it one way only and then after storing the car over the winter it clogged again. Just make sure you got it all.