Hotter Heater Hints

[Mac]

on with the hotter heater hints.

I replaced my heater fan today, got one for $14 from the surplus at Princess auto, didn't fit perfectly, so i had to shim it and move it around, then tape to make it air tight, but it works MUCH better than the origional fan (that i've twice replaced the brushes in) I got more air moving into the cabin now...

I ajusted the cable for the selector, you can access it if you get under the drivers side footwell and look up, theres only one cable there, unclip and move it back a bit to compensate for the fact that its streached over the past 20 years.

tomorrow i'm going to look at why the air flow isn't even through all the ducts, for example the passenger side rear seat heater duct dosn't work at all and air only comes out of the middle vent for the windshield.

lastly is the water flow valve for the heater core, some tool overtightened the hose clamp and crimped the hell out of the brass end of it which is probably lessening the flow. I'm going to replace it with an elbow to see if that helps, and if it does, then i'll buy a new valve from toyota.

I might do a flush aswell, keeping in mind what typrus has leared the hard way so that i won't have to replace all the rubber in my cooling system.

[Mac]

update:

-didn't get around to checking out de ducts, but the heater works pretty good now (just when its starting to warm up too) so i'll deal with it later.

-I replaced the heater valve in the engine bay with a plastic cooling system elbow, its marginally hotter than before, but i start getting heat alot sooner

-flushed the cooling system, drained it, then flushed it with water (didn't want to dump all those chemichals into the enviroment) I oped to use the 10-min cooling flush which won't destroy anything non-metal in the system if left in for too long, its cheaper, but for optimum results you should drive around for awhile.

[Petros]

FYI, I have seen a lot of leaves build up on top of the heater core which would slow down heat flow to the ducts. Unfortunately you have to dismantle the whole dash and heater assy to get to it.

It is a major job, I have done it twice on Tercel parts cars i was stripping. It is about a 1 to 2 hour job to get to it, longer if you are careful not to damage anything you are removing. You have to remove the center panel and the whole dash board, it is a lot easier to remove the steering wheel to get to everything.

I have heard there are products you can buy to spray in the air inlet that will disolve the leaves and junk. Not sure I want to try that, but blowing compressed air through a long flexible house might get some of them off the core and out the ducts.

Also you can flush just the heater core by removing the heater hoses. NOt a bad idea to improve flow, I have done this both on a Mazda and a Ford, it works. Also I have seen the mounts for the heat control cable get worn or bent, this will limit the travel. Keeping the cables lubricated will prevent this.

[shonuffisthemaster]

I did a full HVAC disassembly when getting my car running again after 3 years of sitting (yes, you guessed it, mice) anyway the improvement in my heat is nothing short of amazing!

I’m not sure what I did that improved it, maybe a combination of things, but the heat used to be barley adequate in the winter. I had to wear gloves and hat at all times even in 20 degree weather, I just figured small engine + big interior was to blame. Now the heat is more than adequate, its hard to believe, but I find myself running it on full outside vent, and having to turn the heat down going 65 MPH, and its been -10 to -20 here for a while!
Here is what I did;

*Pulled the outside vent cowl off (I alredy had the hood pulled for something else) and cleaned all the screens, vacumed out the intake

*Pulled the entire dash and all ducts out (a pain, but not too bad)

*cleaned out and washed all the ducts, and all parts of the HVAC system that could handle water.

*pulled the heater core out and blew through the fins with compressed air (LOTS of dust)

*scraped all the old foam form the various flaps (had to split the heater housing to get at some, the blower housing I could get at with the motor / fan removed) and replaced them with 1/8â€