Fresh air, center hood vent delete

[dipso]

Does anybody have any ideas on this?

I am getting tired of messing with my heater, air, vent controls. The face is cracked and it is a pain to mess with all the time. The controls don't stay in position and the face has become separated from the body.
It needs a new one but tell you the truth. I would rather just get rid of it.

I have a 75 with heater controls between the seats. I never use the fresh air blower, but use the heater/defroster all the time. My heater is backdated.

I was looking around this morning and here is what I am thinking. I could remove the fresh air blower completely and just run my hoses from the heat exchangers directly to the control boxes in the hood. One on each side. From there they could divert heat to either feet or dash, wherever it is needed.
I would plug where the hoses from the blower went.

I might even remove the entire vent control assembly from under the dash and hook up a new 'pull' style cable that controls the flapper boxes to direct heat only.
I would fashion or have made a matching face plate for where the old unit was.


My dilemma is this. Once I remove the blower motor there will be a huge hole beneath the center vent where water will rush into my hood.
Is there some piece that I could buy that would fill in that area or make it drain
properly.

I don't want to have to repaint my car but a nice aftermarket center vent fill piece that doesn't leak would be nice.
Any ideas.

I know i could just leave everything as is and just only use the red directional knob already in place, but I was just brain storming.
Plus I am one of those guys who, if it doesn't work get rid of it.

[dipso]

You see this guys. I found this on Pelican from another thread.
His hoses come directly from the exchangers to the dash vents. If you look just inside where the hoses enter the trunk area there are those 2 black areas. That is where I would use my existing diverters and still have heat at the feet.

But see where he has the center vent. That would leak into the trunk if not blocked.
Humm, I think it's an old thread but maybe I should bring it back up and see what he did.

[SCWDP911]

I have been looking at doing something similar. My reasoning has been to "fix" one of my biggest gripes about the SC interior (among other models) - the mismatch of style between the HVAC controls and the stereo. I know, probably a dumb pet peeve, but it is my pet peeve...

My idea was to smooth out the lower dash section, replace stock switches with retro looking toggle switches, replace the HVAC controls with throttle/choke cables (been looking at rotary types from snowmobiles actually), and then figure something basic out on the stereo (have had too many ideas so far to narrow it down yet).

Will be watching to see what you come up with as well. Who knows, maybe I will follow suit and delete the fresh air blower (my car is a cab) - all I need is occasional heat and more importantly, defrost capability. I think the air from engine should defrost since it is essentially heated ambient air, right? I recently bought a replacement fresh air blower as mine died last year. I also just bought footwell blowers from a Carrera and was thinking of using those to replace the forced air source.

[dipso]

I just looked around and I don't think there is anything to fill that center vent. I also don't think there would be just a drain for it without the blower. Because if there wasn't a blower, why would there be a vent and why would you need a drain.

It sure would be nice to get rid of that blower and control assembly. It would give better access to the under dash stuff, as well as wiper motor and gauges.

Using the backdated heater and going directly to the control boxes would be great.
Maybe some kind of drain assembly from a different year or when the blower was an option would work.
But I just looked and didn't see anything.
Maybe I don't know where to look.

[LJ851]

dipso I did what you are talking about to my 85 carrera. I have back dated the heater and removed fresh air blower. I left the black control boxes on the left and right an used aluminum duct tape to block all the unused outlets and holes into the cabin. There are a lot! My solution to the air inlet on the cowl at the moment is a thin sheet of rubber sandwiched between the vent screen and the body. You cant even see it unless you look really close and does not appear to leak, although some silicon adhesive would fix that problem easily if it occurs.

[dipso]

Yeah, that sounds like an option. This company here sells something that might work too.
http://www.smartracingproducts.com/pdfdocs/041100_airventilation_kit.pdf

It is a vent system that is supposed to direct air directly to you, through the clock.
It is for racing though and don't know if it is waterproof.
From the looks of it, you could just not use the hose for the air to clock, and block that hole off. And just plumb it differently to drain out the smugglers box like the existing one.
It's about 230.00 bucks though.

It does make more sense to just stop the water from getting in, rather than figuring out how to let it in and drain it out.

I like that rubber seal behind the vent idea. But since the vent is not that rigid I don't know how well it would seal.
You say yours doesn't leak.
That's good news.

I might go for it with some good gasket material and the vent block it might be O.K.

[Ferrino]

I'm looking to do this too - eliminating fresh-air blower and ventilation controls and just have heat sent directly from the exchangers to the dash outlets. I would also like to find out the best way to stop water ingress when removing the central blower unit (that has a drain tube). Would it be easy to make form a blanking plate to sit behind the screen and block water intake?

[Ferrino]

Bump :-)

[OffCamber00]

Originally Posted by Ferrino

I'm looking to do this too - eliminating fresh-air blower and ventilation controls and just have heat sent directly from the exchangers to the dash outlets. I would also like to find out the best way to stop water ingress when removing the central blower unit (that has a drain tube). Would it be easy to make form a blanking plate to sit behind the screen and block water intake?

That is what i did. I ran hose from the door sill vents up thru the dash and directly to the defrost tubes. Eliminated all of the HVAC crap and made a block off plate for the hood vent. It worked very well - I live in Charlotte so only ever used the defrost anyway. It warmed the car just fine in winter.

[Ferrino]

Thanks (again!) Mat. If you manage to take a photo of your block-off plate for the intake vent hole, I would be very grateful - is this something you just cut from sheet metal and formed by hand?

[OffCamber00]

Originally Posted by Ferrino

Thanks (again!) Mat. If you manage to take a photo of your block-off plate for the intake vent hole, I would be very grateful - is this something you just cut from sheet metal and formed by hand?

aluminum flashing - painted in black plasti-dip and then mounted behind the grille frame. I also ditched that mesh since it just collects bugs and other crap. Looks much cleaner now. will add that to my pic list for you

[Trackrash]

Here's my solution. I deleted the blower and everything connected to it. When I pull the knob by my seat the heat comes out of the rockers by my feet and is effective in warming the car. I can open the center vent on my dash and get fresh air.
I avoid driving in the rain, so water in the trunk is not much of an issue.

[OffCamber00]

Pics as promised:

[Ferrino]

Thanks again Mat - that looks great!

[RD911T]

Interesting. Subd

[sundevil64]

Another option that a friend gave is to backdate to what his 68 912 has. I don't have any pics right now but it retains the fresh air vent and defrosters and has a provision for draining water.

[m110]

There is a FG hood available with no opening for the the vent, just smooth all across. I will have to remember who made it....some years ago I had one.

[Rodsrsr]

You mean like this....... Its a Rennspeed piece. FG Flat hood.

[Charles Freeborn]

Hmmmm... Very interesting. For years I've just had the two heat tubes dump into the cabin at about knee level on account of having all the blowers and duct work out while I chase electrical gremlins behind the dash (PO bad alarm and stereo install). I just control the heat with the lever between the seats like in my old VW. I've gotten used to it, and with modern chemicals like rain and Fog X the defroster is less of an issue. When I have my seats reupholstered I plan to add warmers as well (separate thread).
I would like to have some sort of manual diverted valve, maybe down in the footwells, that make it blow into the cabin or up to the defroster, and a manual fresh air flapper too. My vision for the interior dash is a clean row of toggle switches in a "Rat Racer" sort of motif. All the heat controls gone would fit this image nicely... I'll give it some thought and post progress.

[sobamaflyer]

I'm going to regret admitting this but faced with the same problem, a thus-far useless fresh air system and now 3 years of not missing it (thank you vent wing windows) I simply removed all the garbage under the wiper panel (or didn't put it back in at some point) and put some aluminum heater duct tape under the black grill. It's closed it off from air coming in and rain as well.