modified heater for race car?
 

I'm starting to think about the work I want to do on the car this winter and one of the projects I was thinking about was a semi heater delete. I want to retain heat function but just a fixed vent system/ window defrost with the blower motor. all the other crap can go.

does anyone have any thoughts about how to approach this? not a hard issue obviously but just thought someone may have done something similar and perhaps i could learn something from someone who has already done this.



just a single toggle switch to control the heat should be all I need.

Go back and look in Emilio's build thread for crusher. They did exactly what you're talking about with a small oil cooler sized fan.

deffinitly a good thing to have especially if your car starts running a little hot

Cruising for a ban, are we?

A buddy of mine did something like this for his Honda Challenge car. Used a Setrab cooler with a fan on one side and a dual-outlet duct on the other with some brake ducting/dryer hose running up to the windshield. Wound up working out pretty damn well. I don't know that it saved THAT much weight, but he had fitment issues with the dash bar. I was trying to find pictures of it, but it looks like they've been deleted.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1351660124


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1351660124

Ghetto fab

I went through this a bit on the '90. I used an OEM NB heater core and box since the later ones are aluminum instead of copper (IIRC). The blower didn't weigh much so I put it in its approximate place since the cage moved it off a bit. I manually moved the controllers to 'full hot' and 'defrost' and removed everything else. I used some 8" aluminum flex from Home Depot motorsports to connect the two.

I read the Crusher thread but didn't feel like the weight savings would be worth it for my car. I thought about putting in a simple toggle switch but decided to just use the stock fan switch since that part of the wiring harness was intact. Here's an early revision of my aluminum tombstone with the fan switch. The defrosters blow as hot as needed - I did a 20 minute session at Laguna with the windows down in a monsoon and didn't fog the glass a bit. :fael:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1351664004

The zip ties look familiar, do you by any chance have relations to techsalvager?

I absolutely did NOT do that. I traded a bike for this car on a whim, and the ghettoness just started bleeding out all over the place as I pulled it apart. That cage is made of water pipe, and has no mounting plates whatsoever. The "solid motor mounts" were stock mounts filled with bolts and trash, and covered up with Liquid Nails. As you can see, the heater was beyond hood rich. The whole car sucked. I got all the terribleness pulled out, and got ready to put the car back together again, and just dont have the motivation to deal with it these days.

why would you trade your bike for that?

1.) The bike was all but worthless, and 2.) the horror show was very well hidden under lots of sheisty speakerbox carpet and spray paint. I didn't realize what I was getting into until it was toooo late.