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280Z AC Blower - Better One?


Phantom

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I have a '77 280Z and the fan for the Ac is way too underpowered. I have new everything in my AC system and can get the air cold but just can't move enough of it to cool the car down in this Texas heat. Anyone know of a drop-in blower that will move more air - like twice as much??

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The Civic unit (motor and squirrel cage) is supposed to work and be a practical bolt-in--do a search bubba :D There are some good threads about this very topic. Pete Paraska used one from a Lincoln (?) and it blows serious air, but it requires some "cobbling" as he put it. Hope this gives you some ideas.

 

Say, you are talking about the fan motor, yes?

 

Davy

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I have a 71 240 and a 75 280 AC car, the 71 has the Civic blower in it

and it whips up a storm compared to the 75 that has the stock AC. The

civic blower is one wire but has the speeds controlled by the blower

switch that must have resistors for the different speeds. Here is a link

to info on both the Civic and Ford heater blowers.

 

http://www.zcar.com/forums/search.php?f=1&search=civic+blower&globalsearch=1&match=1&date=0&fldsubject=1&fldbody=1

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  • 2 weeks later...

I installed the Civic (any civic between '87-'91) blower last night. It doesn't just slide right in, took about 6 dremel cutting wheels and 30 minutes to open the diameter of the housing enough to fit the larger diameter squirrel cage. After that it was easy. IMO it's a moderate improvement over the 280z blower, and would be a vast improvement over the 240z blower. One thing that I noticed while I had the glove box liner out was the large gap (up to 1/2") between the center vent section and the evap box, where the foam seal was missing. I replaced that and several other foam seals on the ducts. The down side is, my glove box is no longer a make-shift refrigerator. Take a look at these items when you tear in to your system. Now I have to figure out what I did to make my A/C fuse blow and my radiator fan stop working. sux :x

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  • 1 year later...
  • 9 months later...

Battling through the complete rebuild of the heating system (frozen heater valve, frozen cables, nothing pretty much works). I figured that I would throw in the Civic blower when all was apart. Seems to fit perfectly! One thing, it has two "+" terminals on it? One points to the left and one to the right - ? Do I just pick one and ground the unit?

 

I have a 1973 240Z and it came with air (purchased this year). Could that be stock? Did they have it that year? It has a York condensor, and there is a large unit underneath the glove box. The belt is missing, so I have no idea if it works or it is worth fixing. I figured I would start with heat and go from there....

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  • 3 weeks later...

David,

 

Have you had a chance to install the blower yet? If so:

1) What specifically did you have to do to install it?

2) What is your impression of the amount of air it moves?

3) Were you able to maintain the 4-speed function of the stock AC lever?

 

I'm still using the one that came with the car (28 years old now) and it is good for up to about 100 degrees. After that the whole system just gets overwhelmed. It used to only be good to about 90 degrees but it is amazing what 100 lbs of insulation in a car can do.

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David' date='

 

Have you had a chance to install the blower yet? If so:

1) What specifically did you have to do to install it?

2) What is your impression of the amount of air it moves?

3) Were you able to maintain the 4-speed function of the stock AC lever?

 

I'm still using the one that came with the car (28 years old now) and it is good for up to about 100 degrees. After that the whole system just gets overwhelmed. It used to only be good to about 90 degrees but it is amazing what 100 lbs of insulation in a car can do.[/quote']

 

 

I have not installed it yet. Maybe I will do it when I get the tach back from John and install them both at the say time.

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I just got one of those on ebay as well for my 78. Hasn't come in yet. I just got this 78 a couple of weeks ago and this is the first time I have had a driveable Z in several years. Anyway, I had forgotten how much heat comes through the tranny tunnel. Phantom, I noticed you had put down insulation, I was about to mention that being the first thing to do. On my current A/C, the air is actually pretty cold, just not enough of it. When I put this new unit in I will check for gaps in the seals and then I will report back the results since some might be curious how much of an upgrade it provides in the 280.

 

One issue I am very curious about however is with the greater volume of air will it still be as COLD?

 

Qwik240z, what have you observed regarding this?

 

-Adam

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Adam,

 

If you're getting a lot of heat coming up around the gearshift lever then the tunnel seal is either missing or torn. It's amazing how much heat that seal keeps out. A new seal along with a little insulation on the tunnel goes a long way to keeping the car cooler. Another area that can really help is an addtional 1/4" of insulation above the headliner. The roof is a real radiator too. Third area is the firewall. Make sure all the penetrations are sealed. If you do all that you'll get another 5 -10 degrees worth of outside temperature that your AC can handle.

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