Vintage Air Heater for guys that removed your heater box

ttypewhite

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2001
I bought a Vintage Air heater box from Summit Racing. The weather is changing and I'm not done driving my car as yet. This heater box came in at the right time. I also picked up a black anodized AC delete plate from Mark at TR Custom Parts. So the plan is to run this system as clean as possible using black teflon lines and fittings from Racetronix. I will update this thread with pictures as I do it for the guys that want to put heat back into your cars.

Here is the link for the heater
https://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/vta-506101/overview/

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Here is a link for the AC delete panel
http://www.buickgn.com/ACdeleteplates.htm

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That looks like a nice unit, I'll be watching too. BTW That link redirects to vaglink.
 
Finally had a chance to get started, so today I tore it down and assessed the plan of attack. I'm going to be making a plate behind the AC delete panel to mount the Vintage Air heater to, and also use it to hang some other stuff as well.

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C' mon Mike, it's gettin' cold out! Lol! Following this...and will likely do this to my car next year.
 
Got some aluminum sheets to make up a panel that everything can mount to from the inside of the car without having to mount anything to the AC delete panel (except my dipstick for my TH400 in the engine compartment side). Now that the unit is mounted, it's time to find the best and cleanest way to route these coolant lines from the motor to the heater inside the car.

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Mike....
I really hate to tell you this but Nick Micale has a bolt in Vintage Air unit with a modified heater plate that moves the unit out an additional 2 inches or so, allowing it to fit behind the dash perfectly. You lose the glovebox but thats no big deal. Comes with a new evaporator and dryer canister that goes out in front of the core support. Leaves the engine compartment real clean. Water lines for heat also.
I just talked to him about it on Monday.
Take care
Coach
 
Hi Coach, I did see that, but I wanted something custom to suit my existing layout. I don't want to run any lines running across my inner fenders or have my AC delete panel protruding in any way, I wanted that plate to be flat. I am going to be running bulk head fittings on my firewall behind the intake, or on the AC delete panel. Not sure which route I'm going as of yet, but #10 teflon lines are very small in outer diameter compared to #10 Russell lines so they will not stand out. The plan is to run it in the factory location along the side of my valve cover and discretely route them inside the car. I think it will have a cleaner more discrete look when it's done and it will follow the scheme that I started when I made the custom engine harness. Fingers crossed....
 
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The idea of this is to have an AC delete panel but still retain heat right? While I like the idea of Nicks kit, I have no need for AC but dont want to give up heat. I also assume the AC portion is the largest part of the expense.

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For $230 and some creativity, this unit is a steal. I had a heater system in this car before out of a Toyota 4 Runner last year but I couldn't regulate the heat. It was just hot and no in between. This unit can moderate the heat, and has vents for the windshield and floor. I too have no use for AC, it's not a daily driver, and if it's that hot that I need it, I don't even want to be driving the car. I'm going to relocate the controls for this Vintage Air system to my center console because I don't like the way it looks in the dashboard replacing the factory climate controls. Just looks odd to me. If it was digital and had a more futuristic look I would definitely swap out the factory climate controls for it.
 
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Had a opportunity last night to make some progress on this heater system. We mocked up the teflon lines in the engine compartment. Using the factory lines as our template, we started with the line going from the top of the water pump to the AC delete panel, where we used the factory "S" bend hose that runs from the top of the waterpump to your coolant bar. So we started with a Racetronix #10 male barbed fitting that fits in the end of the "S" hose with a hose clamp. Fitting and part # below.

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From there we ran a Racetronix #10 -90 degree fitting which perfectly lines up with the intake and valve cover. Then we took off the big fitting on the intake that your factory coolant bar gets the coolant for the factory heater box. We put a #10 Racetronix male fitting and a #10- 60 degree Racetronix fitting to start the bend that goes around the injector and follows the other teflon line to the AC delete panel. At this point we put my old AC delete panel back in the car to mock up the lines. We drilled 2 new holes for the Racetronix #10 bulkhead fittings. This is where the dremel comes out because the bulk head fitting at the bottom interferes with firewall of the car, so I had to clearance that so it would work. Once the bulkhead fittings were in and the AC delete panel was temporarily mounted. We ran the teflon lines across the intake and mocked them up with a #10 - 30 degree Racetronix fitting. This is what the 2 lines look like after being cut to size.

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And here is what it looks like on the motor.

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Next step is to run the 2 lines from the bulkhead fitting inside the car to the Vintage Air heater box and hook up the electrical, which is very simple with one ground and one positive to keyed ignition with a 30amp fuse. So far this is going exactly the way I envisioned it to be, very clean and discrete and looks fantastic.
 
Just what that car needs, another beautiful and perfect install with all nice racetronics fittings and hoses. May you get nothing but cold air. :):):)
 
Just monkeying around, really curius as to how it works for you. It looks great, keep us posted. Thanks Gene.
 
Mocked up all the lines on the inside of the car and tore it all down for final installation. By trying to keep things consistent, we wanted to continue using the AN fittings and illuminate as much rubber hose as possible. So there is 2 areas with this heater that needs converting. One is the 2 lines coming off of the Vintage Air heater which is setup for a heater hose. We cut the barbed end off and used a Racetronix fitting with a olive to start the #10 lines.

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Also had to convert the bypass valve as well to #10 AN

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And these are the completed lines behind the dashboard.

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Next step is to take off the old AC delete plate and lay it on top of the TR customs plate and mock up the bulkhead fittings on it for final assembly.

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This is everything from the plate to all the interior stuff.

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Last step of the night was to put Humpty Dumpty back together again on the engine side of things. I will do final assembly on the inside of the car, run the heater vents and wire it up later. But here is the finished product from the outside.

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