20 Oct 2012: As I ripped out the heater and AC of the car, the original plan was to find a cheap alternative eg hairdryer fan + element. After reading reports over the years of their ineffectiveness and Jonno trying out a bilge fan to reasonable effect, I ponied up and bought a vintage air compact gen2 heater and demister from Summit racing.
One of the first things I did was test out the unit, and it pumps out a decent amount of air. But the unit is commonly made for american hot rods, which this car isn't. Doesn't have a flat firewall like a hot rod, has shifter cables routed on top of the transmission tunnel. This meant I had to think of a way to mount the unit and I had to match it to the factor demister vent.
Initially I was debating about using in the american configuration with the flexible hoses to the factory vent. But the actuated vent at the bottom of the unit vented onto the transmission tunnel and shifter cables.
There was also the issue of the inlet vent on the RHS of the car in the installs on the web. The factory vent from the scuttle panel is located on the LHS of the car as it is right hand drive. If I had mounted the unit as per american installs, then the air inlet would interfere with the steering rack boot.
So I took apart the unit to see if I could flip the inlet/fan around. This didn't work as the fan outlet to the heater core was offset.
In the end I turned the unit upside down, swapped two wires which control the flap actuator on the unit control panel and voila - auto flap for demister mated to the factory vent using a metal shroud. I'll make up some mounts to vent the footwells.
All in all, this has taken a long time to sort out - around a month to figure out all out, make unit mounts, orientate the heater hoses incl. time spent at the Hutt City Auto Parts digging around in their heater hose collection to find the most suitably orientated hoses, getting brass bulkhead fittings etc. in order to get good heat into the car.
The heater, bracing and shroud has taken a lot of time with me crawling in and out of the car, mounting the unit over and over again, trying to match the shroud to the factory demister vent. Overall, I'm happy with the result and just have to get a couple of items to complete the setup. Enjoy the quick snapshot of my pain figuring this all out.
Compact heater disassembled.
21 Oct 2012: Bent up 2x aluminium bars, drilled some holes in the scuttle panel wall (vertical mount to reduce water leakage through holes). Note tab to right of RHS mounting brace. Initially I didn't want to cut it off. Braces mount to factory points and the bolts used up top are stainless to reduce corrosion.
22 Oct 2012: Mounted to unit, added foam to reduce vibration.
30 Oct 2012: Made funny shaped cardboard template to match heater to factory demister vent.
Testing it out in the car. But after some thinking, this cardboard shape was too convoluted. Making the shroud in metal would be a complete pain!
1x angle grinder and cutting disc + executive decision = no tab!
To now match the heater unit to the vent, I had to move the unit around 40mm to the RHS of the car. That meant my braces were not in the right place. To match, I welded in some aluminium cross braces.
First time I welded aluminium. Beads came out okay. Still learning, but not bad IMHO
06 Nov 2012: Cutting up the shroud out of 0.8mm mild steel. Unit will be painted and covered in heat resistant material from DEI. Interesting note, when cutting thin metal with jigsaw, use small teeth blades. I think I was told 2-3 teeth per thickness (or something along those lines). Stops the jigsaw from catching. Also, when cutting aluminium, go at a slower speed. I killed a blade by clogging up the teeth with aluminium by going to fast.
Starting folding the metal up.
09 Nov 2012: Starting to come together
10 Nov 2012: As you can see, I bent the metal on wooden members as I had seen this technique on the web. Added some new knowledge to my brain on how to do this technique
Made a lip on the shroud to match up to demister vent.
Slightly better angle. I got a good tack between the funny angles to tie it all together.
Anyway - unit is mostly welded up. PITA to weld up such thin metal, but I got used to it.. until I ran out of argon *sigh. Still work to do, but I'll post up the rest of the shroud pics when I have finished.
23 Nov 2012: On a more interesting note, I ordered a Bullseye housing for my Holset HX35. I had it delivered to my cousin in Cleveland who sent out to NZ for me as the freight costs to New Zealand were exorbitant!
I finally got around to seeing if the housing fit the Holset and I mounted the MaxFab steam pipe manifold to the HX35. And to my great relief, the HX35 fits up very very nicely!
There is also clearance around the turbo inlet area. I was worried that there would be interference with the gearbox and clutch release mechanism. But no major issues. I will most likely bend up a new hydraulic hardline from copper nickel to ensure there is no interference from the cold air inlet pipe.
So pretty!
Manifold needs to be cleaned up. I still have to fab up an adaptor to mount my GFB wastegate to the manifold. Shouldn't be too much of an issue though. Still waiting for a small bottle of argon to arrive *sigh
Originially when I tried my friends wastegated HX40 housing, there was barely 7mm between the rear of the housing and the oil cooler. Now there is bags of room - huzzah!
24 Nov 2012: Back to the bloody heater, and some wiring fun.
I had previously welded up some holes in the firewall to smooth out the look. TBH, I should have planned this out more thoroughly at the start, but no one seems to have tidied up the looms in ST185s and documented what they had done. So my intention of using a small factory hole near the bottom of the firewall was curtailed when I routed the fuel and brake hardlines. The Deutsch plugs I had bought were also rather large.
So I decided to go through a hole I had welded up further up the firewall. This would also help when it comes time to drop the engine as the plug adaptor is in easy reach.
As I'm a bit lazy, I covered the steering rack and lines with some speaker carpet and went to work on the firewall. Shame my holesaw bit was blunt. $30 later and a new holesaw and I ripped through the welded in metal in a couple of minutes
Here is an interesting modification journey factoid. The metal that was welded in, bent when the holesaw went through the hole. It broke off the welds (arc welded in - not best idea). I had smoothed out the previous work with automotive bog. Now the bog is not attached to anything. I'm going to have to cut out the bog and replace with proper metal as the plug adapator has to sit flat on the metal. Oh well, new plate will be tigged in when I prep the bay for paint.
Because I am pedantic, I made a little paper catch for all the crap coming through into the cabin. Such small things just make life a little simplier e.g. I don't have to clean metal particles from the interior carpet.
And I drilled the firewall for the heater bulkhead fittings once I had orientated the interior heater hoses into the right place. It all takes time, but the end result will be fantastic once done. Note, Putting random holes into the firewall and then 'making it work' was not on the cards for me. Especially since I am trying to 'do it once, do it right' on this build.
Thats all for now. You are all mostly up to date with my progress
Cheers
Dave
_________________
GT Four
Adovansu
"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."
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