After taking my engine out to fix the heads last weekend I started to debate whether or not to remove the heater and eliminate the heater hoses. This would help alot with space under the hood and less places for coolant leaks.... I only really drive the car in the summer (when its running) and the only thing I can see needing a heater for is the window defroster because ocasionaly the window does fog up.

Has anyone else taken theres out? do you miss it? anything else I should consider?

 

I took mine out a couple weeks ago, but I live in Arizona, the heater doesn't even get as hot as the outside air here. If I lived in Wisconsin like you, I'd keep it if only to defrost the windshield.

 

I agree, don't take it out. I had A T/A without one and it sucked bigtime, especially in the morning, even in summer. Putting it back in would have been a PITA as well, so I sold it and got a Camaro. It sucks not being able to see where you're going. If you can figure out a way to keep some sort of defroster, and don't mind the cold, go for it.

 

Let's see...

Summer mornings. 76°, 270% humidity, fog everywhere along the big lake, no defrosters. That would suck, for sure. Wait until tomorrow and Sunday morning, when the RH should be right at about 100%, and see what I mean. Then again, if you install wipers on the inside of the windshield, you might get by.

 

Actually removing the heater shouldn't affect the defrost function, since for many years now, the defrost is sent through the AC side of things to remove any moisture and aid in defrosting.

Sure, warm air helps but isn't necessary, dry air is the key.

 

Not going to run one either. I found ( I forget where) little electric heater boxes that you can wire in. They are small, going to put one on each side of dash for defogging.

 

Correct, but I'm guessing that if he said he would remove the heater, the rest of the system was out the window as well. I probably shouldn't assume.

The dry air is important, but in 80%+ RH, running cold air to the windshield just causes the moisture to condense on both sides of the windshield rather than evaporate it. It takes a little heat as well to drive off the moisture - warm, dry air (just like in the desert) seems to be most effective at defogging. Once there is frost on those October mornings, the heat is essential.

I only "summer" drive most of my cars, too, but as long as there is no salt, sand, or lime on the roads, I'll drive them into December if conditions permit. Once the roads get that first application of "seasoning", it's Game-Over until the first spring rains clear all the crap off the pavement. I'm guessing that PK might be doing the same thing, since he lives in the same climate.

 

My car is one of the few that came from the factory with no a/c all I got was some little handles under the dash which open some fresh air ducts which pretty much does nothing when its hot out.

I though about what bob was taking about. putting some small electric heaters in the dash just for defoging. But I think I would want to test that out before I take the heater out.

And Vader is probably right, as long as the roads clean I would probably continue to drive the car and it does get quite cold up here reguardless of the snow being there or not.

Oh well it was just a though and I was looking for some adivce, Thanks.

Kevin

 

Found it... in the Northern Tool & Equipment Co. catalog. Or NothernTool.com. 200 watts and up to 700 btu. Plugs into cigarette lighter. $19.99.

 

does it work pretty well for defoging the window? keeping it a little warm in the car?

 

havent tried it yet. Car is far from running... but for $20.00 I figure it's a good gamble

 

i removed mine and find it no big deal. I do live in a cold climate and was driving around in march. I park it in that garage so i don't have early morning dew problems. When it was damn cold out and i was driving, i would keep the windows rolled down a bit and the heat of the motor coming out of the cowl by the fans keep the windows clear. This was in minus -10 C weather. Guess I'm just hardcore.

 

Ok heres what I ended up doing, (not finished with it yet but I will have a bunch of pics posted when its all done) I took out all of the heater completely. Covered all the holes in the fire wall with a peice of metal, took the original metal blower shroud from in the engine bay and reshaped it, now it only housed the blower in the same spot in the corner, then just feeds to a tube that goes to the defroster ducts. So all of the heating elements are gone and now it simply blows fresh outside air onto the windows. In the end I gained a ton of space in then engine bay(perfect place to mount the MSD box and coil), and probably about 20 or 30 lbs of crap is gone. On the bright side the heater core looked like it was on the way out anyway so I saved myself a big pain in the @ss there, and I have some heater parts to sell/trade/donate if anyone needs them. Oh yeah the motor is back in too, just gotta put everything back on it now. Hopefuly she'll be back on the road for the 4th of July.

 

Heres all the crap that came out. Anybody need any of it?

 

Heres the firewall with all the stuff gone

 

Heres the Blower housing before I started changing it

 

The reshaped blower housing

 

One of the new blower housing on the firewall with all the other stuff covered up. I painted it all, just didnt get a picture of it.

 

Picture of the heater/defroster ducting before

 

This is the duct after, now it is defrost only

 

Behind the blower housing I drilled a 3" hole through the fire will. I fed a piece of 3" flexible dryer vent through the hole then over to the end of the defroster peice that I made. I tested it out last night and it works great. Definatly one of those mods you want to be absolutely sure you want before you even start cause there is no way its going back to the way it was.

Oh yeah sorry for the size of the pics and all that, I was having problems shrinking them down to more reasonable sizes.

Ok so honest opinions, what do you guys think?

 

I think you do good work.

It's something I've been looking into for a while, but haven't been brave enough to tear into it yet, got a couple ??"s

The piece in the last picture, the defrost duct, thats the original piece right? If so, did you cut it, or was it bolted to rest of the ducts.

how much of the interior did you have to take out to get all the heater stuff out? I figure the dash pad, plastic panels under the dash, and possibly center console? anything else?

 

Thanks, you should see it now that its got a coat of paint on it, looks like it came that way from the factory.

The defrost duct has once piece that is screwed to it for the front center dash duct. once you take that off you can see that the heat sections of the part are all on one side and he defrost are on the back side. I used a hacksaw blade and cut off all of the heat part leaving me with just the defroster vents. The metal duct peice on the bottom of that started out as a 6" round to 2" x 14" floor box I couldnt find one that was 3" round so I cut that one down to size. The duct tape is mainly to seal up all the seams, everything is screwed together with sheetmetal screws underneith it.

As far as removing interior I took out the dash pad, speakers, and all the bolts/screws holding the dash in. I took the top plate of the console, then I was able to pull the dash out about 3 inches or so which was enough to do everything.

I took the heater controls out completely, and Im going to put a plate in its place, probably mount all my switches there for the defoger, cooling fans,.... The only part of the wiring harness that Im using is the leads that went to the blower which is one orange wire that went to the plug, then 1 black wire that went to ground. Oh yeah, I took the vents out of the center of the dash being that they dont do anything anymore. Great place to put my CB radio or something along those lines.

I think I got it all, if you have any more questions let me know.

Kevin

 

Kevin...
Great pics, think I'll go that way. Still kicking around a $20.00 electric heater wired in it. Got to say one thing... Your good!

 

Thanks Bob, I was still thinking about the electric heater too, Im pretty sure one would fit in the metal duct work piece right below the defroster outlets, Im going to try it out with out the heater first though. Once all that other crap is gone, its really easy to gut up under the dash and work on the stuff so it wouldnt be more than about a 20 minute job if I decide to add it in later. Oh yeah I forgot to say in the other posts, all those parts got sealed up with either RTV or new sticky backed foam so its all very tight and doesnt leak (big concern being that it runs through the fire wall into the passneger area.)

Kevin