Heater Clearance

[JMD]

Well, so far this has been one of my bigger 'oh crap' moments.

I got the heater installed, it went great, no surprises (which is amazing) and I was very pleased with the end result. Stepped back to admire a job well done...and noticed a big oopsie. Apparently the heater core inside the firewall installs at an angle which kicks the back end of it up quite a bit. Somehow I missed this when I located my template and tried to hold the parts up to make sure of my location. Because the long copper pipes stick out so far I wasn't able to actually arrange the core against the firewall. It would fit great in this location except for that angle. The result is it sticks up about 5/8" (see pic). My gut tells me this is too much, but I'm hoping against hope that with the bulb seal on the firewall maybe it still clears??? If not it's not the end of the world. I can move it over an inch and only have a couple of small unused holes in the firewall to show for it. I'm sure I can make it look good or use them for something...

What I'm really wanting is someone to tell me it's going to be fine, but know that's probably wishful thinking.

Thoughts?

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[CaptB]

Did the same heater, sorry to say it looks a little high, maybe an inch? So I would be lying if I said I never made a hole in the firewall I didn't mean to. If you lower it it will likely hide it but if it doesn't get a nice looking fastner and put that in the hole that way it looks like it's supposed to be there.

Capt. B

[Norm B]

More than likely it is not going to work. The body rests on the bulb seal on the firewall which will give you about 1/4 inch more clearance. It looks like you are too far to the passenger side with the heater. Can’t tell from your pictures if the heater is sitting on the 2x2 cross member like it is supposed too. If you were planning defrost ducts you also have exacerbated the problem with clearance on the passenger side.

Norm

[phileas_fogg]

Did you install that heater in the "normal" location on a firewall forward? If so, you're definitely too high and too far outboard to fit a wiper motor. There's some fine print on the heater template telling you how to adjust; if I recall correctly us firewall forward guys have to lower the template 2".


John

[boat737]

It looks like my positioning is about 3 or so inches towards the center of the car from your location appears to be. a bit more room in that position.

[dbo_texas]

I agree with others....looks like you are a couple of inches too close to the passenger side (i.e. not the recommended location from the instructions) and therefore it sits a little too high. My install is a little different - I made a bump-out box so that I could keep my glove box and I also have the wiper motor installed.

[JMD]

Thanks for the input everyone! Yeah, I already removed it and contemplating my next move. I saw on GTBradley's build thread where he actually cut a hole in the firewall big enough to fit the entire unit, created side brackets and pulled it far enough out to sit against the glovebox. I think I may try that approach and should only have two small holes in the firewall to cover up.

Looking back I'm not sure how I missed the instructions saying to space the heater ~6" away from the edge of the firewall. Ah well. It may work out for the best as I was planning to cut the back of the glovebox to make it fit, but I think I'll try and find a way to have both.

[weendoggy]

Not knowing that heater setup, is the core going to the top of the housing? If not....

[JMD]

I actually had that same thought, but the core does extend all the way to the top. Great minds think alike!

[Buzzsaw]

Don’t feel to bad, I have the firewall forward and spaced it correctly for the wiper motor but measured up 2” from the bottom of the aluminum per the template. The result was my heater was to high and was close to your pictured heater. I tried to cut out move the heater down but I didn’t like the look of the patch. I ended up buying a new fire wall foreword. Took an afternoon to remove the old one and install the new one. I felt this was the best choice I had, I have spent way too much time and money on having a nice car to settle for a patched firewall. You might want to think about buying a new firewall too.