In this paper, visco-elastic boundary layer flow and heat transfer over a stretching sheet in presence of viscous dissipation and non-uniform heat source have been discussed. Analytical solutions of highly non-linear momentum equation and confluent hypergeometric similarity solution of heat transfer equations are obtained. Here two types of different heating processes are considered namely (i) prescribed surface temperature (PST) and (ii) prescribed wall heat flux (PHF). The effect of various parameters like visco-elastic parameter, Eckert number, Prandtl number, and non-uniform heat source/sink parameter on temperature distribution are analyzed and effect of all these parameters on wall temperature gradient and wall temperature are tabulated and discussed. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.