Track dash heater ducting solutions where cage bars are in the way

Might be a worthwhile thread for those who

• have weld-in cages
  or
• are starting to mod their dashes anyway for lightness.

My track car's got a roll cage dash bar which renders the heater duct, from the heater box to the dash shell, useless due to the cage bar being in the way.

So starting to think about how I'm going to solve this. A heated screen isn't the answer for me - I need a heater in the car.

I'm going to chop out the underside dash ducting and replace it with something like this below - but am hoping to have a look at the various choices avail.


From Car Builder Solutions:


http://www.cbsonline.co.uk/search,b.html?q=plenum

• Does anyone know of any other sources of dash ducting components, other than these?
• What would you bond them on with? Plastic onto dashboard fibre....?

I've had a good roam around various race & rally cars in the last six months, and have seen various ways of dealing with it, but none are what you'd set out to make of an afternoon:



Gr. A Subaru Impreza, Spal fan, custom carbon heater box, samco hose, feeding up to what I'd guess are custom dash ducts:


'03 Ford Focus WRC, custom carbon ducting again, full width by the looks, secured with ? + aluminium tape


.... running some sort of air pump which. No sign of heater though - just a pump...



Anyone recognise the pump name? I think it might also be used by boat manufacturers (I'd quizzed the service team at the time). 4" diameter something....

 

Managed to sort that with a bit of searching...

Rule 4" In-line Blower, part no 240 - click

Technically sold as in-line blowers for boat bilge pumps


UK seller here

 

That inline pump is the same as in Tom Knights Kumho BMW currently being built by Russ at BMWorx.

See pic:



P.S. Although also sadly no heater in that system either.

 

i've got a td5 90 landrover and they have a neat little heat exchanger with a fan and ducted to the dashboard.Might be of some use.

 

Interesting. Pics would be good if poss?

Looks like a few are using them. I've since spotted Merlin list them in their catalogue.

 

http://www.simmonites.com/Defender Interior.htm

look down the page. about 6" square. could be made into ducted box. i'll find some better pictures

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Defender-Td5-...14&_trkparms=72:1683|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318

found 1! hot and cold adjustment and up and down. 2 speed fan but can be moddede with rover 216 fan controller to 3 speed. hope it helps.

 

Ah, it's more to do with working out what to do with the ducting up to the dash, that replacing the heater box itself. I'm going to keep the heater box, and re-work the outlets.

 

Ah i see. was wondering if its ossible to get the air out of the heater box via a different route. how does the standard one work? fresh air blown down ?

 

Chris i thought it was only the side vents you tend to lose on the mk1.

 

Remote heater

Hi chris,
I currently use one of these, light,compact, mount it where you want ( I bought some standard type heater hose to run from the block to the heater matrix ) and you can change the configuration of inlet and outlet spigots to suit.The size of the supply air spigots are a smaller diameter than the standard golf plastic tubes so you can run a smaller dia tube which can be easier to thread around obstructions, another benefit is that being a smaller dia you get a higher velocity delivery of air
I have been using mine through the last cold snap with no problems when the standard heater matrix expired !

 

Thanks Ray, food for thought. I think I saw that in the Europa Spares catalogue, but couldn't find it online.

The bigger headache, whether or not I change the heater box for another, is getting the air into the dash vent apertures.

The existing dash picks up its air feed from the heater just above the dash cage bar, and I want to strip the dashboard under-gubbins to make it as light as possible. Then route the air up to the screen with some heater duct plenums, but it's more a case of sussing what options there are available:
https://www.carbuildersolutions.com/uk/demist

The existing air ducting in the dash gets cut into in the corners anyway, because of the A-tubes, so I just want rid of the underside ducting altogether:


I'll get another pic up later

 

Ah right sorry Chris, i remember now about the little hamster heater that used to be in your car.

 

Hope this clarifies:

Cage dash bar passes straight across the bottom of the heater => dash duct, and also results in the glovebox tray having to be cut to accomodate it.



I've marked the bits I'm thinking about removing:





... which would remove all the air ducting parts from underneath the dash, but leave the clips, so the dash could still be mounted at the bottom of the sreen as usual.

So, I'd then hope to bond some kind of demist plenum to the underside of where the air emerges to flow up the screen, ie the usual air vents, shown here:


So I'm looking for thoughts and ideas of parts options to do this, if anyone's seen other kitcar-type stuff on the market

 

Chris...looking at mine today i'm gonna block off the heater outlet under the bar and use the side vents to heat the screen.
I'm going to either make a lightweight dash top and move the vents up the top a little so they can come out round the bar and striaght up.
Or im going to use the old dash strip it down to the min and then do the same thing and flock it.
The warm air can come out of the clock binacle and the glove box top in mine as they won't be used.

 

the triangle style ends as shown higher up are the same as fitted to classic minis.. they are ok, but need sealing up due to the 2 sides just being stapeld together, ok when new but after a few months they start to leak and get worse! a bit of gaffer tape on either side and job done.

 

Beemer pervertible rear window heater/blower. Not sure if it blows straight out of the housing below or whether there might be ducting attached - might be worth a look in a scrappy?

 

These?

 

what about a vacuum cleaner shop? there's one in the indoor market in macclesfield that has loads of stuff, fittings, hose etc