L-body heater upgrade

[glh_turbo22]

Well i always thought my heat on my GLHT was pretty sad. It never seemed to get warm inside the car. So I was able to get a part that my company makes called a PTC heater. It's an electric heater that throws out some mad heat. Heat up time is only 30 seconds and it has three banks so you can select low, med and high. It's self regulating so all you do is feed power to it and it operates at it own safe temprature. Check it out.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2/bubba1978/GLHT/HPIM1355.jpg

Here is the slot i cut in the factory no a/c heater box to fit the PTC heater.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2/bubba1978/GLHT/HPIM1356.jpg

Here is the heater installed.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2/bubba1978/GLHT/HPIM1359.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2/bubba1978/GLHT/HPIM1358.jpg

And here is the wiring and relays for each bank. I plan on wiring the relay feed wires to the blower switch so when i switch to low one bank is on, med two banks are on and high will have all three banks.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2/bubba1978/GLHT/HPIM1361.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2/bubba1978/GLHT/HPIM1362.jpg

Now i plan on doing an alternator upgrade to the 120amp to support this heater. The inrush current is the only reason why i would need more amps because after that the heater draws only 20-40 amps after the rapid heat up.

I'll hopefully be giving it a test run in a week or so.

Tell me what you think.

Kevin

[JDAWG]

nice, price?

[GLHS592]

I never had problems with my L-body heaters. If anything, they'd fry you.

[tryingbe]

By-pass the vaccum heater control... I like.

How much was it?

[contraption22]

I never had problems with my heater in my Lbody either, and currently i have NO insulation or carpeting in my car! What is your coolant temp? Is your thermostat too cold? Heater core clogged?

[WVRampage]

Mine heatsup great but nice Idea I guess.

[SL#189]

nice, price?

Mine seems to work fine (better once I get the charging circuit working), but that would make an awesome rear heater for my Suburban.

I second the price question. :amen:

[eddycooper]

If you're looking for even more heat, buy yourself an aftermarket heater core. I bought one recently to replace the stock one (like yours), and this new one is fully twice as thick...

Eddy

[glh_turbo22]

I'm sure most of my problem was that there were a lot of leaves blocking the heater core. I figured that since i was in there i would test it out. plus it will be nice to have heat as soon as you turn on the car since i don't feel safe putting a remote start on a manual car.

As for price i got mine for free but this version here which is fond in VW and audi is around $80 i think from the dealer. The newer Ford Super Duty also has a similar heater. It would work great for a rear auxilary heater instead of running coolant lines to the back of a van.

Thanks for you comments guys.

kevin

[BIGBRUDDA]

Ah'm a nominatin you fur the HVAC man hall-o-fame:amen: :D :thumb:

[devlish]

^^ Damn Straight! ^^ that's some ingenius thinking there!

my heater works fine though in my Omni.

[Capt'n Dave]

Now that is Slick,But i think it will be a alternator/battery killer in the long run,I take my hat off to you,and Yes you got my vote on the HVAC of the year!:thumb:

[Clay]

Cool idea! so no worries about that heater melting anything, or having any issues where its located? I would be interested in that (if I drove my cars in the winter), just for the elimination of the heater core and associated lines/valves.

Is this thing rated for 100% duty cycle?

Last question, you said this is available in other cars (VW and audis). Is this their primary source of heat? ie no heater core? Or is this just an auxiliary for use while the car warms up?

Thanks,
Clay