It seems i heard somewhere about debris from the blower motor causing corrosion on the heater core and premature failure,the solution was to install a filter between the two, or I may be thinking of a different model.

Sometimes the problem is not the heater core itself, but two small pipes that go towards it. These two pipes are connected to two hoses through a plastic adapter mounted on the firewall. As everything made out of plastic, this adapter becomes brittle with age and tends to develop mini cracks. Mine did (I also have an 1997). Unfortunately, I realized that the adapter needed replacement after installing a new core. A thought of taking the whole thing apart and having coolant all over the place once again made me ignore the issue for now. I still am losing a tiny bit of coolant; the smell is gone though...