Board logo

Is this a mad idea?
JC - 5/2/19 at 05:38 PM

I’ve just got hold of a couple of ‘eyeball’ vents from a Bini. My car doesn’t have a heater but sometimes a bit of warm air would be welcome.. I’m thinking of installing them on the dash with some ducting to pipe in hot air from the radiator - has anyone else done this? It should be clean, non -toxic air from there..........

russbost - 5/2/19 at 06:32 PM

You'll probably still need to add a fan of some sort, you get surprisingly little air down a pipe of 2" dia or similar without either a direct duct from passing air to feed it (even then pretty useless at low speed) or a fan to drive the air - computer fans or similar could probably do the job, & you need to be ABSOLUTELY certain that you can't pick up any CO from exhaust leaks within the engine bay along the way, even with an open car CO is not a good thing to introduce to the cockpit

jps - 5/2/19 at 08:40 PM

Didn't old minis do something similar? And I assume all air cooled cars have cabin heating without a heater matrix?

kingster996 - 6/2/19 at 07:47 AM

https://forum.wscc.co.uk/forum/topic/132814-westfield-heater-unit/

Very common on Westies and a heater unit for sale above.

SJ - 6/2/19 at 12:41 PM

quote:

Didn't old minis do something similar? And I assume all air cooled cars have cabin heating without a heater matrix?


Off the exhaust in my old Citroen GS. Worked a treat and is what I plan to do on the MK, with a fan off a Saxo

jps - 6/2/19 at 12:59 PM

quote:
Originally posted by SJ
Off the exhaust in my old Citroen GS.


I think my donor Sierra did this too - it had a raggedy bit of flexi tube on a plate about the exhaust manifold. I wasn't paying a lot of attention when I took it out and chucked it away though!!!

SJ - 6/2/19 at 01:52 PM

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by SJ
Off the exhaust in my old Citroen GS.


I think my donor Sierra did this too - it had a raggedy bit of flexi tube on a plate about the exhaust manifold. I wasn't paying a lot of attention when I took it out and chucked it away though!!!


That would be for warming the inlet / carb not the interior.

redturner - 8/2/19 at 06:40 PM

Back in the days when the Ford Pops were 'popular', I fitted quite a few 'heaters' to these cars using a home made 4" butterfly valve and a length of 4" flexible hose. I made up a metal box to go across the top 1/4 of the rad and this took the other end of the pipe. Of course these days you can still buy those old round Smiths heaters, which were used in some sports cars and tractors……..