[Fishin2Deep4U]

Hey folks,

I have done some work to my Bird and I am installing a Vintage Air unit. The heater hoses will go into the firewall through the old squirrel cage hole. As such, I want to relocate the heater hose off the back of the head and route it alongside the water pump and AC lines.

I know some cars had vacuum or cable operated bypass systems in place to stop or reroute the coolant. Is there any downside to moving that head attachment to the crossover in the intake? I want to be sure I will not be causing some unforeseen flow issue with that side of the block/ head.

Looking for a cleaned up, but proper system.

Thanks!

Dave

[TedRamAirII]

No issue that I can think of. The heater should work even better.

[Goatracer1]

Up until the heads changed in 1965 the heater hose came off the cross over to the right of the thermostat.

[HWYSTR455]

What I did was used some of the Vintage Air hard lines and ran a line along the firewall, flared the one end for an AN tube nut, and used AN fittings. On the other side, I left the hose barb on it and used a hose clamp.

With the inner fenderwell in place, it's hidden. I took a short piece of that same hard line, jammed it into the heater control valve, JB Welded it, and ran a barbed AN fitting into the Billet Specialties hose manifold.



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[HWYSTR455]

Not sure why those pics ended up being turned, originals aren't, sorry about that.


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[HWYSTR455]

I ran all the lines behind the inner fenderwell too...

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[Fishin2Deep4U]

Originally Posted by HWYSTR455

What I did was used some of the Vintage Air hard lines and ran a line along the firewall, flared the one end for an AN tube nut, and used AN fittings. On the other side, I left the hose barb on it and used a hose clamp.

With the inner fenderwell in place, it's hidden. I took a short piece of that same hard line, jammed it into the heater control valve, JB Welded it, and ran a barbed AN fitting into the Billet Specialties hose manifold.



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Thanks for the pics.

I really want to avoid crossing anything over the length of the firewall if possible.

I assume you have a trunk mounted battery in order to run the heater and A/C lines forward. And how did you route your fuel lines? I have fuel up to the firewall, but I am unsure of how I am going to do the final plumbing.

Dave

[HWYSTR455]

Well, you could go along the intake/head area, with a hard line, could make it blend in some.

What comes out of the head though needs to go towards the heater core, so options are limited.

Battery is in factory location, on the drivers side.

Fuel lines, basically followed the passenger frame rail forward to the crossmember, then on the floor pan, and up the engine side of the floor pan to a bulk head connector bracket, and AN soft lines to the rear of the intake. Can look at my build thread, pretty sure there's a ton of pics there.

I posted some, might be hard to see, but think there are better pics on the build thread.

Made a plate off the intake carb flange to mount the regulator. Lines run up the bell of the trans to side of dizzy to the regulator.

EDIT: I transitioned from the frame to the body using flexible lines so it allows for movement.


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[Fishin2Deep4U]

Thanks again!

Dave

[HWYSTR455]

There's tons of room on top of the trans to hide crap, by the way.

The lines are further away from the header than it looks, and heat isn't a problem since the fuel is at 45+ psi, no boil.

I used regular aluminum lines, and sanded/painted them with engine paint.

I used dipped adel clamps to hold lines in place. Eaton/Aeroquip makes a ton of sizes of clamps.

I made the brackets to hold the bulkhead AN fittings. Basic 'L' shape.

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[Fishin2Deep4U]

Yeah, I am deadheaded at 58psi. (5th gen Camaro fuel system).

I do like the idea of crossing over the fuel line to the rear. After I build the brackets for the AC suitcase, I'll get my firewall hole drilled in the tunnel for the injectors, coils, ect.

Maybe I'll machine up a bung and use that at the head location and go back down the tunnel and over. More run, but I could at least keep my firewall clean.

Dave

[HWYSTR455]

I used grade 8 bolts, ground the heads flat, welded to the inside of the firewall to mount the case, nothing went thru the firewall.

I ran 1/2" line and AN -8 for both the feed & return. It gets a little tight around the dizzy, but made it work. I wanted to make sure regardless of EFI/carb, and power, the fuel system could handle whatever. It could probably handle 1500-2000hp maybe, more than I will ever have. (At least for now)

I put the oil psi and fuel psi on the firewall 'cove' behind the dizzy, and use N2O lines to attach one to the block by the dizzy (oil psi), and one to the regulator (fuel psi). The transducers are known to fail somewhat easily from vibration, so the firewall mount avoids that. I used 2 adel clamps for the transducers.

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[Fishin2Deep4U]

I missed the train on welding to the firewall. Car has been painted. I would much have preferred to stud off the firewall in hindsight.

I do like the ideas you have for the other parts. Most of my install is fairly compact, and I am doing some sensor sharing across canbus, so I minimizing the sensor connections.

I will take another look at the hose routing. I might try coming off the crossover at the front.

Dave

[HWYSTR455]

So, what happened to me, somehow, one screw was not in the right position, and I had to cut it off. What I ended up doing was using a screw with a flat, round disc as a head, and I cut a channel into the heater core opening, which was now covered up, and slid the bolt into it. I also globbed some JB weld on it, and used a piece of steel tubing, cut to a particular length, as a spacer/stand off.

Here's a pic of the type of screw I used: <attached>


If you come off the crossover for your heater, you might create a dead spot in coolant flow. I went thru a lot of scenarios, and due to the bleed hole in the cover to crossover, and the t-stat location, I felt it best to keep the same feed for the heater as OE. You can try it though if you think it will work, but might want to monitor temps on engine front to back with an IR gun or something.

I was contemplating use more of the hard line for the heater lines, on the underside of the fender, but figured it was too much work for little return. In my setup, with the air tube especially, you really have to look to see the lines.

On my harness, I split the sensors off on it's own harness, injector harness, and ignition harness. I ran it out the back, and along the firewall low, and mounted my ecu behind the driver fender on the firewall. I cut a hole in the lower steering column plate, and was going to run the ecu on top of the column with a bracket, but had problems finding enough space. But the hole I cut in the plate uses the large grommet that ships with many harnesses. You can kind of see the hole in the one pic I attached. About as hidden as one can get, unless you are OK with doing a hole in the tunnel/floor area close to the firewall.


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