WTB: Bad/broken heater box

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x_atlas0

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Howdy, everyone.

I'd like to see if anyone has a heater box they aren't using for me to measure. Given how bad it's been trying to get AC working well for our cars, I'd like to take a stab at designing a combo housing / mono fan heater + AC box drop-in replacement for our cars. I already have a complete evap box with blower and intermediate housing, but the only heater assembly I have is the one in my coupe. Once I have that, I can combine all the parts to get my size limits, connection points, and existing core sizing (evap and heater) to see if I can make a combo design.

So, please let me know if you have a heater box you'd be willing to part with. I'll probably want to take it apart, so I'd rather buy vs borrow in this instance.

Thanks,
Matt
 
Anything that improves this weak link of our cars is wonderful. Thank you very much for looking into that!

I don’t know if this is similar to what you are looking into, but in case you have not seen it, and just to make sure you’re not finding yourself reinventing the wheel, our buddy @Blinkling has done some work in that area as well:

DIY - Aftermarket Evaporator Installed In A Coupe

Hi Team. I set out this year to find a replacement evaporator for the AC systems in our E9s and E3s (and E12s and E21s). I found one (originally made for a 2007 Land Cruiser). It fits in the original box pretty well and it’s in my car working now. I’ll show you how I did it and then update...
e9coupe.com e9coupe.com
 
Bmachine said:
Anything that improves this weak link of our cars is wonderful. Thank you very much for looking into that!

I don’t know if this is similar to what you are looking into, but in case you have not seen it, and just to make sure you’re not finding yourself reinventing the wheel, our buddy @Blinkling has done some work in that area as well:

DIY - Aftermarket Evaporator Installed In A Coupe

Hi Team. I set out this year to find a replacement evaporator for the AC systems in our E9s and E3s (and E12s and E21s). I found one (originally made for a 2007 Land Cruiser). It fits in the original box pretty well and it’s in my car working now. I’ll show you how I did it and then update...
e9coupe.com e9coupe.com
Click to expand...

I did see that, and I like it a lot, but it is still contingent on having the AC parts first.

I have (so far) spent nearly 2000$ on just the interior bits to add AC to my coupe, and it won't be that great anyway. Heck, the only reason it's that cheap is because I got all the functional bits (evap, blower, switches sensors, etc) from an E3 nearly 15 years ago for ~200$. I have also been disappointed with the heater effectiveness. I don't know if that's a problem with my car, or if they are 'all like that' since I have ridden in a total of 2 coupes in my life, and one of them is mine.

So, I'm asking about this because I'd like to update the HVAC to have better overall performance and hopefully reduce the need for all these crazy expensive interior parts. If I can design a combo system that has a similar footprint to the original heater box, that would enable AC to be added to our cars without the drastic cost increase of those interior bits, and I'd like to improve the blower motor performance so it's something better than an asthmatic mouse.
 
Hi Matt,

I do have a corpse of a heater box that includes many of the original elements
i can part with it so that you can use in your project
shipping won’t be cheap, though
 
deQuincey said:
Hi Matt,

I do have a corpse of a heater box that includes many of the original elements
i can part with it so that you can use in your project
shipping won’t be cheap, though
Click to expand...
Howdy!

Does it happen to have a heater core? I can probably work out which bowden cables go to which controls based on the recent heater rebuild thread elsewhere on the forum. I'd like to have a core so I can approximate the sizing without doing the thermal calculations.

I concur, shipping will be pricey, but the part price would make up for it. I'd expect it to be ~50-100 euro for shipping, right?

Are there any other parts you'd like me to work on? I recall in another thread you were asking for someone to remake some parts associated with the vent window controls.
 
x_atlas0 said:
Howdy!

Does it happen to have a heater core? I can probably work out which bowden cables go to which controls based on the recent heater rebuild thread elsewhere on the forum. I'd like to have a core so I can approximate the sizing without doing the thermal calculations.

I concur, shipping will be pricey, but the part price would make up for it. I'd expect it to be ~50-100 euro for shipping, right?

Are there any other parts you'd like me to work on? I recall in another thread you were asking for someone to remake some parts associated with the vent window controls.
Click to expand...
Sending you a pm
regards
 
I think this is an excellent idea. Obviously the air conditioning in our cars was an optional add-on so there is a lot of redundancy in having a cooling unit side-by-side with a heating unit. The biggest gains to combining the two would come from:

-Using one large blower for heating OR cooling;
-Using a valve to shut off or bypass coolant so the heater core and evaporator can be sandwiched together into a single air passage;
-Making cold air come out in multiple places such as the front vents + the floor.

I'd be happy to pass along some CAD files and / or lists of evaporator part numbers for you to look at if you'd like, Matt. I've drawn the major parts in 3D for my own experiment a year or two ago. There are tons and tons of off-the-shelf parts that could put you in prototype territory fairly fast!
 
IIRC, Vintage Air, or some such, at least on E24s, was using the larger evaporators out of a Chevy SUV or Range Rover. They could be moved around in different positions to fit the box
 
Hi Matt,
this box was broken/repaired. I don't need it anymore, you may have it for free, only shipping costs by you. 20231025_120909.jpg20231025_120844.jpg
If you are interested I would disassemble it and calculate the shipping costs from Germany
So let me know by pm.
Regards
Thomas
 
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