I've been trying to figure out what the winter's weight reduction stuff will be.. and removing the dash to get all the excess wire and whatnot out is one I'm comsidering. Radio is coming out for sure, as well as the a/c.... the passenger's air bag will definately come out, if I swap on a different steering wheel, the drivers as well will go away. I would like to retain a heater of some sort only for windshield defogging on those damp nights at car shows.. I was thinking that maybe a small core with a fan could be rigged up to blow air across the core and out the vent in the center of the dash... anyone ever do this? It would be alot lighter then the factory heat, and still serve the purpose of defogging the windshield, probably one of the only reasons alot of people don't remove the heat stuff.

If anyone's ever done it, post up a pic and what you used for a fan, I was thinking a simple 3 or 5 inch fan attached to the bottom or top of a small heater core, something like a tranny cooler size, positioned right below the vent opening in the center of the dash would do the trick, just hook up a switch to the fan and mount in the hvac/radio delete plate to turn it on and off. Be relativly easy to do, probably only weigh a couple pounds.

If noone has done it, I guess that means I'll be the first to try...... not sure what to use for a core or a fan yet, probablygo to radio shack and see what they have for 5 inch dia. fans, and see what I can find for a small tranny cooler or oil cooler core from summit or something, just have to get somethign I can get hose fittings on, either that or adapt an AN fitting to the water pump inlet/outlet, and get a flexlite cooler with AN fittings, much like the one I got for my th400 cooler, just smaller. Only concern I can think of at this point would be something that can withstand the pressure, I am planning on going to an MEZ electric street pump, not sure what the pressure is that creates, but the heater setup obviously needs to be able to handle the pressure of that water pump, no need to start spraying hot coolant all over the inside of the car


Any ideas/feedback would be appreciated.

 

Bump for the morning, I know someone must have rigged up a defroster after removing the heat.....

 

Have you seen the Mohave heaters/defrosters in Summit? They are in the Jeep section. They are nice and small and have a 3 speed build in fan, from what I've read, they weight under 10lbs. It shouldn't be to hard to mount one under the center of the dash.

 

That is kind of where I got the idea... but I figured I would try to take it one step further..... I think the heater setup that I am thinking of would probbaly be 5 lbs give or take. It wont' have a variable speed, but will do what I want it to, defog the windshield.

I'll take another look at that heater though, might give me some better ideas.



Anyone else?

 

I think what your planning so far sounds good, Radioshack fans are expensive compared to the rest, so I would go online to a PC store and get some 120mm fans (maybe two of them next to each other) or two 90s, two 60s... use some sort of small cooler and make a fan shroud for it and duct the fans to the dash vent.

Keep us updated.

 

I won't use radio shack fans, just used that for an example. Either 2 6 volt, or 2 12 volt fans will work, or possibly one large 12volt fan (just have to hook up in series for the 6 volt, parallel for 12 volt if I use 2) would work fine, I was thinking that if I mount the fans on top of the small cooler/radiator, the body of the fan itself, along with say a piece of foam cut out to mate up between the dash opening and the fans itself would be good enough for a shorud, some simple alum bends could mount the radiator and the fans easy enough.... I think it will work, only way to find out is to try it.... and if it does, it will be a huge weight savings over the stock heater ducting, and retain some type of defogger/defroster for the windshield.

My garage is gonna start being built in the next few weeks, once that's up I'll have a place to execute all my mad scientist ideas... so over the winter, I'll make this a priority to do, the dash is gonna have to come out to do the cage anyway, so while it's all out, I'll definately be working on it. Got a ton of stuff under there to remove (sound deadening, extra wire, move whatever I have to for the cage, etc.etc.) so while I"m in there I'll get this done. I'll post pic's of it once I have it made up, and results as to how it works. Should be a 5 lb defroster when it's all done!

 

You can keep just the bare minimum of the stock setup, if you don't mind cutting off the pieces you don't need. Let's you keep and use the stock temp control and fan control too.

The fan is the heaviest part remaining. You can leave it out when it's not needed. Only 3 screws hold it in.

This thread has some pictures of the process:
http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/index.php?showtopic=6589

 

after looking at that, yes it is nice that it keeps some of the factory function... but I think that is gonna be a TON more work by the time I got done making blockoff plates and whatnot... if what I want to do wirks, it will probably only take a few hours and should easily accomplish the one thing I want to do, have a way to blow some heater air onto the windshield for those nights I go to a cruise and leave late and it's a little cool out.. there's nothign worse tehn having a fogged up windshield and trying to drive. As long as what I am planning will blow enough hot air on the windshield to eliminate the fogging, I'll be happy. Plus, if what you removed by doing what was described in the above thread saved 17 lbs, then what I am planning on doing will probably save at least 20, probably more. What was the total weight savings of the ac and heat modification that you did?

 

I don't know if I have a final total on it or not... I took notes along the way, but it was a few months ago now, when I did all that.

It was a lot of work... an aftermarket setup probably would be easier. The fiberglass box on the engine side is heavy, and so is the blower. A lighter weight blower would definitely help, and I imagine the aftermarket setup uses a lighter one.

I definitely agree on the advantages of being able to do some defogging.