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Decided it's a good day to reinstall heat in the ol Camaro. Have a few question. My old 84 had the heater hose coming out of the water pump. This 91 has no provision on the water pump for a heater hose. So my question is, can I run the 3/4 hose from the radiator port in the picture, to the fire wall, then the 5/8s port from the firewall to the manifold in the other picture. Also, the wiring has all been hacked in the harness but I'd really like to use the original climate unit instead of a toggle switch. Can someone point me to the two wires I'm looking for to make this unit work?
Re: Reinstalling heat after previous owner botch job.
Heater hose routing is "hot" from the intake manifold, to the heater core, out the core and "cold" return to the radiator. On the older version, the hose to the water pump was the return, you can simply move it to the radiator.
as far as wiring http://www.austinthirdgen.org/index.php?pid=19 has the schematics.
Re: Reinstalling heat after previous owner botch job.
Ok, I've found this. Do I need to install a resistor or relay? I'm completely fine with only having the 3 speeds instead of the 4th high speed used for max a/c. Can I just use the yellow and brown wires maybe?
Here's the car I'm working on. Such a nice car to be hacked up electrically.
Last edited by Ivelostcontact; 11-10-2021 at 09:03 AM.
Reason: Added picture
As the wiring goes, I'm not much help over the internet. I can figure it out when I'm fumbling the wires, if I'm not looking at it my brain can't comprehend or something. BUT I'd try to put it back as factory. Maybe get a donor harness.
Re: Reinstalling heat after previous owner botch job.
If the previous owner bypassed the heater core, then the core was probably leaking. Have you changed it, or, at least, checked it? Hopefully that's where you began, because you wouldn't want to connect hoses to it, then find out it's leaking.
I don't see any holes in your air box for mounting the blower motor, so I'll assume it's fiberglass? Did you purchase/install it, or did the previous owner? It's for a non-ac application, which, of course, is the point. But it's designed to fit the non-ac blower motor, whereas most people who do this swap had ac and probably prefer to use their existing ac blower motor, but can't with this air box. And in your picture, that's how far an ac blower motor will stick out of a non-ac air box. Here's a factory non-ac air box with an ac blower motor inserted into it. The lack of fit is similar to yours. So you'll need a non-ac blower motor/fan wheel if you use your current air box.
That little "nipple" on the mounting surface of the factory non-ac air box is for aligning the motor, so all of the mounting holes in the box line up with the holes on the motor flange. An ac blower motor's mounting holes will line-up, like in the pic below, but the cooling air hose will be way off. That's not an issue for fiberglass boxes because the holes can be drilled anywhere for correctly positioning the blower motor. But I thought it was worth mentioning, in case someone wanted to somehow try to make their ac blower motor work in a factory non-ac air box.
All said, I suppose someone could build-up the gasket material thick enough to allow an ac blower motor to fit the non-ac air box. And a fiberglass box could be drilled to situate the motor so its cooling air hose lines up appropriately.
However, there is a fiberglass non-ac air box available that's design to accept an ac blower motor. More than one such product exists, I think. This one is by a guy in Ocala, FL. He sells them on ebay. During a visit to FL a few years ago, I met him in a parking lot for the exchange, kind of like a drug deal lol.
And because it's fiberglass, it could be drilled to align the ac blower motor so its cooling air tube met the box appropriately, like in the pic below.
It's a nice product, but it does have one shortcoming. The right side of the box is supposed to slip behind the AIR tube and engine block and OVER its mounting stud, but it's too thick/tall, as you can see in the first pic below. The factory non-ac air box, as compared in the second pic below, is thin enough to slip behind AND over the stud. If people are removing the AIR system, then no problem with this non-ac box. And most people who did this probably did that too. But with an intact AIR system, I notched the hole in the air box to slip the end of the box behind and around the mounting stud, instead of fighting to get it to over the stud, seen in the third pic below.
Regarding the routing of the heater hoses, the hose out of the heater core, through the ? hose and the metal pipe(if you still have that pipe), can be routed directly to the radiator port, like you asked. That's where the flow goes anyway, when a stock hose configuration is intact. Also, yes, the flow into the heater core can come directly from a coolant port in the intake manifold.
Last edited by LAFireboyd; 11-10-2021 at 03:08 PM.
Reason: added another pic
Re: Reinstalling heat after previous owner botch job.
Sorry, been busy the last few days. I ended up running the 5/8s line to the intake in the place I showed in the picture, and the the 3/4s to the port on the radiator. I tested the heater core with a water hose earlier in the summer. It's been going fine now for two days without leaks. I ordered two different blower motors (one a/c, one non a/c) and the non a/c wheel as it's not as thick. If I can mount the non a/c wheel to the a/c motor I'm going that route for simplicity's sake of wiring. If not then I'll just install the non a/c wheel and motor and figure out how to wire that up. I have the resistor and matching pigtail coming as well. I didn't order the relay as I don't plan on needing the super high speed mode anyways. So I figure I can use the diagram to match up the wires with the resistor and have the normal heat speeds. At least that's my thought process anyways. If it goes that smooth will be another story. My a/c delete box I installed was a plastic one. It slipped right over the stud on the right side once I enlarged the hole with the proper size drill bit. Ended up mountain my ignition box right over top of it and if igniton coil to the box itself. As of right now with no motor installed the air pressure passing through the hole flows enough air over the heater coil and out the vents to keep my perfectly toasty with the windows up surprisingly.
Re: Reinstalling heat after previous owner botch job.
Little update, got the smaller non a/c blower motor installed. Got a resistor and pigtail. Is there any particular place I should install the resistor on the a/c delete box, or just anywhere it will fit? I assume airflow from the blower fan cools the resistor? Looks like the wires on the pigtail are factory color coated so that should make that part a bit easier. Unfortunately I ran out of time at home and had to come back to work before I was able to finish it. Next Month when I'm back home I'll update my progress.
Re: Reinstalling heat after previous owner botch job.
Originally Posted by 1989karr
Does it have provisions already?
if not Id just look at post 6 and copy that...the air from the blower cools the resistor
Nope, no provisions that I can see. When I get back home I probably will do exactly what you said or something similar I'd imagine. Not a lot of room above since I mounted my ignition box directly above it on the firewall. On the outside I mounted the coil, but I believe I left room for the resistor. If not I can always move the coil for the Holley efi somewhere else.
Re: Reinstalling heat after previous owner botch job.
Welp finally made it home. Unfortunately the colors on the pigtail don't seem to be the same colors on the wiring harness. I got a volt meter out and couldn't seem to isolate which wires were connected to the control unit. So I just ran power from the battery to a relay, and then a switch inside the car to provide 12vs to the relay, grounded the relay to the body, and then power to the fan. So at least now I have heat and the windows will defrost. Granted it only blows on high 🤣.
11-09-2021, 03:09 PM
