Remove a/c evaporator but keep fan?

Maxhouse97 · 12-03-2014, 05:00 PM

A/c is gone but I left the fan in the smugglers box to keep the ability to move air in the cabin. Is there a way to separate the fan from the evaporator, or is it one unit?

kuehl · kuehl's Garage

The evaporator box, located in the "smuggler's box well" in the front trunk....
the evap box holds the evap and evap fan. You can keep the evap box and fan in there (removing the evap from the box if you wish). Although, when you run the evap fan you will be recirculating air that is in the cockpit.

Your dash controls... control the fresh air vent and fresh air vent motor.
You could play with the air distribution routing and reroute the fresh air into the vents that were used for the AC.... but, not much to gain.

midnight911 · midnight911's Garage

fan and evaporator can be separated...which i did. take the whole unit out of the smuggler box and undo the clips. straight forward.

moneymanager · 12-04-2014, 06:52 AM

Easier to toss the stock unit and fit a 4" in line fan to blow air at your feet. Pegasus has a 235cfm unit for $50. Very helpful on a hot dry day.

BFT3.2 · BFT3.2's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by moneymanager

Easier to toss the stock unit and fit a 4" in line fan to blow air at your feet. Pegasus has a 235cfm unit for $50. Very helpful on a hot dry day.

I like that and can kinda picture it. Would it be blowing in to the meshed off opening on the passenger side floor or to the AC vents? Do you have any photos of the necessary plumbing etc.? I'll do a search and see what I can find.

bob deluke · bob deluke's Garage

+1 on pics and procedure for fan/control installation.

moneymanager · 12-04-2014, 09:03 AM

I put the fan in the smugglers box and ran a very short hose thru an existing hole in the firewall in the cab just right of the gas pedal & above it. I'd use whatever is available on your car.
The problem is getting fresh air into the fan. For my application I'm happy to just recirculate cabin air, so ignored this problem. If you really want fresh air from the outside world, you'd need to connect the fan to the existing sheet metal below the vent at the rear of the hood, being careful to do it so it can't fill with water. Alternatively you could add a backwards facing vent at the bottom of the smuggler's box which, in my car, already has holes to allow vent water to exit the car.

BFT3.2 · BFT3.2's Garage

Gotcha. If the plastic bottom of the evaporator assembly is removed as well, wouldnt the in-line blower fan (https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/productdetails.asp?RecID=5752) be able to draw fresh air coming in from around the steering shaft accordion boot? Sure it's not a ideal direct induction but it still is "fresh air" coming from outside the car.

Or.. and Im just brainstorming. You could with a 2nd very short run of tubing draw air from the tunnel where the evaporator was drawing from?

moneymanager · 12-04-2014, 11:25 AM

Sounds workable.
My (74) car still has stock below windshield ducting. When I pulled the A/C, which did little more than add weight anyway, I was left with some big holes in the firewall and an empty smugglers box. It was pretty simple to run a hose thru the firewall and just let it pull cabin air thru the firewall, into the smugglers box, then back again at me. The car sees track use in the desert a few times a year and 200+CFM, even if hot, is a real plus. Putting the fan on a rheostat should let you modulate the flow. Let us know how you decide to do the plumbing if you do this.