heater hose question

[lungwax]

Hello all, I am a new owner of a 1999 xlt. My heat is Luke warm at best and non functioning in the rear. As I was prowling around under the hood I noticed that the heater hoses that run to the rear have been cut. Then the cut hoses that lead to the front are spliced together below the T in the line. Would this cause heat loss. My simple mind tells me that the coolant is being pushed into the inlet and outlet ports on the heater core causing a stalemate for coolant flow. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

 

[lungwax]

I went ahead and plugged the hoses off independent from each other and now I have heat. I will wait until time allows to diagnose the reason for bypassing the rear heat. I suspect a leaking rear heater core.