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Does anyone know if anybody sells a true heater box (with heat sinks)in 1-1/2"? Several places sell the "pipe in a box" deal, but this kind of defeats my "heat at all costs" philosophy. I want to modify a set of boxes to recirculate cabin air, but I'd like to step up from the 1-3/8" standard boxes. If I have to decide- I'd rather have the heat than the perfomance, but I'd like them both.

"BlazeCut®(TM) woulda' saved it!!"

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Does anyone know if anybody sells a true heater box (with heat sinks)in 1-1/2"? Several places sell the "pipe in a box" deal, but this kind of defeats my "heat at all costs" philosophy. I want to modify a set of boxes to recirculate cabin air, but I'd like to step up from the 1-3/8" standard boxes. If I have to decide- I'd rather have the heat than the perfomance, but I'd like them both.
Stan,

Try CB perf & CSP. CSP was out two months ago, but was expecting some from Germany. I have a pair of true 1.5s from CB that are 18 months in use and provide adequate heat.

Again, they are CBs, and the system is CSP, Works, performs, sounds, and looks great from my view.....

I will pick up my car next week with the new 40s installed. I'll give it a shakedown to make sure that I'm happy with it. If all goes well I'll p-mail you about the CB ICT kit you asked about.

Jim OKC
I would be surprised if anyone is making a 1 1/2" heater box with an aluminum finned core. Check out my ordeal in Technical (building a new exhaust system). It is near impossible to recore the aluminum core to a larger size..be it 1 1/2" or 1 5/8". It IS possible, but I wasn't willing to pay the cost and none of the machine shops near me wanted to do it. The cores from old heater boxes are really a work of art...very impressive. Since, over the next few years, I really wanted to produce some healthy horsepower, I wanted a 1 5/8" system. Otherwise, I probably would have gone with a system from BAS or CSP. So, I'm ending up with 1 5/8 " hollow heater boxes. George says his works great... but he has a fan (I think). Still, I keep on looking at these aluminum cores.....
Ron
Yeah I also wished there was some AL finning in the aftermarket heater boxes. I do have one tip though that seemed to work. I have the CSP 1.5" heater box and I just covered the entire box with header wrap so that it would help insulate and build up more heat . It's an easy trick and did seem to work esspecially in colder weather when the boxes can't heat up enough.

J-P
I guess it's a cost thing. Back in the 70's when I had a 1970 Beetle, heater boxes were very expensive. Over $200 each (and that's in 70's dollars). Now, heater boxes are about half that. So, you can imagine what 'real' aluminum cored heater boxes would cost today? The market is probably too small, especially for the larger boxes. And low volume usually means higher costs. The main problem is recoring the old aluminum cores. 1 3/8 " pipe in the center, surrounded by aluminum and the opening is square at one end. Maybe someday someone will start making new, larger diameter aluminum cores. I may still try to build a set of aluminum cored 1 5/8 " heater boxes. I may try the header wrap on my boxes.
Ron

(Message Edited 2/9/2003 6:05:22 PM)
Has anyone thought of stuffing the "pipe in a box" heater boxes with stainless steel steel wool? Or expanded stainless steel mesh? Back in the 70s I used to buy this stuff for use in the nuclear industry. It was available from several speciality steel supply houses. Not all that expensive. The idea is to stuff your hollow heater box full of something that will slow the air down long enough to heat it up and at the same time act as a heat sink without corroding too fast. It won't heat up as fast as fins, but eventually it should get up to operating temperature. Just a thought, who's first?

I agree with the thought that the outer box should probably be stainless if you are going to wrap it with Thermotec or some equivalent heat wrap. I destroyed a perfectly good set of steel pick-up truck headers in search of optimum performance. The metal just fell off in large flakes in a very short perid of time.
It's a good idea not to impede air flow through heater boxes; in fact they have a hole to in them to allow air to flow through when the heater control valves are closed (no cockpit heat). The air flow is to keep the exhaust pipes running through the boxes from overheating and burning out prematurely.
The header wrap around the heater boxes does work very well. In addition to not loosing heat you will also reduce the temps. that radiat up to the heads when the car is running while sitting still. I did this to get more heat and yes it does work. The differance is luke warm heat to almost to hot to keep your hand over the outlet. In addition to this I also insulated any/all tubing all the way up to the cockpit. I've had people drive my car with these mods and they can't believe that my car has more heat than their beetle.

Will it rot out the boxes, if you drive your car in salt yes I'm sure it will. How many people drive their cars in the snow with salt on the roads, not many. Those heater boxes get real hot, I doubt you'll ever see them rust, if your worried about it get the boxes hot coated.

J-P
Jean-Paul, you don't have to drive in moist salted road conditions; wraps accumulate and trap moisture during cool-down when you shut off the car. When you start it up (for instance, the next morning) the trapped moisture does evaporate slowly during warmup but it also creates a rust climate inside of the wrap. You will probably find this out for yourself.
Things don't rust in Cali.! Even if the boxes do rust out it will take years
before this happens with the hi-temp. coating on there. Give me heat! Even in CA the weather gets cold.

So George, when are ya getting a new car, I heard you sold the old one. I heard you were going to go big for the engine, how about a nice 2.7 liter fuel injected car or perhaps a turbo. What heads?
Will you go Ti valves? How about the new AL case? If your building all new you might as well go Type four or even a 911 engine, I think you can only get so much out of a Bettle engine before it grenades.


I've got a 2.1 liter myself and the car is quick but not really fast enough to blow away most cars today. The new z, S2000, TT 225, Subaru Impreza, even the new Accord is really fast.

J-P
George,

Just curious, why go with 11.5 to 1 compression with the a/c.net squishy pistons?

From STF post by John: "... we haven't found a limit yet for pump gas, but it will likely be in the 16-17:1 range. It's actually difficult to GET this much compression. I tell most guys to run 13:1 or so, and then worry about other stuff.
John
Aircooled.Net Inc.

I was thinking about your new car. What is impressive to me (besides the fact that you can afford it) is that obviously you could buy just about any car you may want. You have owned some great cars yet you choose to buy another custom Intermeccanica, which says a lot about their product and your beliefs.
Sounds good, I'm sure it's going to cost. Why not a Type four? You could get up to a 2.7liter with the same money with more power? Perhaps you might want to chat with Jake a little to at least compare. Research will pay off, a Type one is not the only way to go. Also do you really think that a modified Type one head is going to dissipate all that heat from a 2.4 liter? Just seems like that combo would sream for the strip and meltdown on the street. What do you want to use this car for? Just wondering.

As far as my combo goes....
82 Scatt crank
H-beam Scatt rods
AL case
Mofoco heads 37*42 D port
Web cam ---can't remember which one--have to look
Total seal
90.5 pistons
chrome moly push rods (would like to get some of John's strong AL rods)
scatt lifters
44 IDF 60 idle--F-11 airs--36 vents--140 mains
balanced/welded fan
1.5" exhaust (maybe a little small but should be good up to 5500 rpm)
009 dist. set up at 30 deg. total adv.

Basically the standard big 2110 engine.
Power is good but not fantastic, the car is about as fast as a Boxter (not the S model)


J-P
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