Driving car w/o ht ex

[orange914jeff]

I have removed the heat exchanger sheet metal from the cast aluminum "duct work" where the fan/alternator is. All the sheet metal to the exhaust "headers" is out of the car to allow me access to replacing the rubber brake lines and push rod tube seals. Can I drive the car without this sheet metal? Any harm to the engine, cooling, or anything else, other than no heat/defrost?The exhaust pipes and muffler are still in place and hooked up.

[WOODPIE]

Orange,

Hard to believe you posted this 2.5 hours ago, and no response yet! I would say no, you shouldn't have anything damaged by running the car without the connecting ductwork. Some might speculate that the airflow through the exchangers keep the exhaust pipes cooler, but I can't believe the temperature difference, resulting from the restricted and convoluted path of the impeller's air, could ever be much more than nominal. The heat likely transfers faster simply from the metal-to-metal conduction. But that's just my opinion.

Ed

[SteveStromberg]

But he is asking about the two outlets on the fan housing.
Not a good idea to run with those blown the cooling air out.

[WOODPIE]

That's true, Steve, and I hadn't considered the loss of cooling due to those ports being wide open. Considering Orange is in Tennessee and I'm in Georgia, could he duct tape them shut?


Ed

[srb7f]

I ran my car with those ports wide open for a couple weeks when I was first getting it back in running condition. At the time, I was just running heat exchanger pipes without any of the heating ductwork in place. When I decided to wait on purchasing the SS heat exchangers, I just made some sheet metal covers to cover up the impeller housing holes. Running my car with them wide open on for a couple weeks didn't hurt a thing, so I don't think you have anything to worry about. If you think about it, they're always blowing the cool air out into the heat exchangers and into the passenger compartment when the heater is on. Steve

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Id at the very least, cover the rectangular ducts coming off the fan shroud...

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

I have read a note from Raby on the "other forum" a few months back that in his tests, blocking those lower rectangular outlets actually hurt cooling efficiency...

--DD