LLave Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 A while back I said that I would post my solution for the cons of heater removal discussed in this thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=113468 Anyway, love it, hate it, here it is! Let me start by saying this is not a full on heater replacement but more of an electric defroster and light duty heater. I do not think it would put out enough heat for you snow state guys. My primary concern was a defrosting function, being that I am in California and don’t need a whole lot of heat anyway. I started with 2 ceramic 12v heaters purchased from ebay (Like these-link). Which by the way, the internal fans are complete garbage. Then I cut up the heaters a bit, took out the fans, soldered in the wires (I didn’t like the connectors). After that I took the stock defroster ducts and cut the bottoms off. A little plastic cement here and there, some silicone to seal it all up and wallah. For air flow, I took the front off the stock heater box and filled the center tube with epoxy (needs a bit of bondo to be smooth). Then made an aluminum bracket that mounts to 2 of the original holes for the factory heater box. I believe the original heat ducts will reach the defroster vents just fine, if not I am just going to use some flex tubing form McMaster Carr. For a fan I am using a high out put 12v computer fan. The fan puts out plenty of volume but I am not sure it has the hp to deal with the back pressure. If it falls short I am going to use a squirrel cage blower, like this one (link), which should do the trick. The larger blower will tack on about a pound or 2. On the bench the whole system seems to work great, decent amount of air, and good temperature at the vent. It is also very light weight. Pics: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naviathan Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 Looks sweet and I guess for a daily driven track car in a decent climate that would work. I'm a little curious about the heating elements though. They don't get too hot for the plastic around them? I know the stock vents are very light flexible plastic that gets mushy when hot. Noce work though. I'll bet you end up with the squirel cage. Computer fans are not great for flow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LLave Posted December 4, 2006 Author Share Posted December 4, 2006 Looks sweet and I guess for a daily driven track car in a decent climate that would work. I'm a little curious about the heating elements though. They don't get too hot for the plastic around them? I know the stock vents are very light flexible plastic that gets mushy when hot. Noce work though. I'll bet you end up with the squirel cage. Computer fans are not great for flow. The heating element it's self is in the aftermarket heaters housing, which obviously was designed to handle the heat. The top portion of the vent after the heater does heat up a bit after some use but I don’t think it is any more than the stock heater on full blast. I am still debating adding some sort of temperature and fan speed control. It would be easy enough. I will sort that out once I get my interior back in place. I think you are right about the squirrel cage. I just don’t see the pan cake putting out the type of air flow I would like to see with the resistance of the ducts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.