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Air-Con Refurbishment & Heater Fan Upgrade


Sirpent

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OK,

 

Well if you are a hairdresser who owns a S30 you wont want this upgrade unless you don't mind having the windswept look or intend blow waiving clients hair on the run.

 

Yes IT LIVES !

 

Just finished the install of the motor into the chamber and did a test, have posted a vid on Youtube but I warn you, turn down the volume.!

 

I will post very detailed instructions soon with step by step pics.

 

Cheers

 

John

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IvZP9s-x4Y

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OK,

 

Well if you are a hairdresser who owns a S30 you wont want this upgrade unless you don't mind having the windswept look or intend blow waiving clients hair on the run.

 

Is he talking about you Dave??    ;D

 

 

Yes IT LIVES !

 

Staying Alive  ....  Not so subtle reference to the Bee Gees  ???

 

 

 

Just finished the install of the motor into the chamber and did a test, have posted a vid on Youtube but I warn you, turn down the volume.!

 

This film was brought to you by Boeing!!!!

 

What an awesome job.  Well done.  Now you only have to make 250 of them for the rest of us  ;)

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What an awesome job.  Well done.  Now you only have to make 250 of them for the rest of us  ;)

 

Yeah no problems, will do it on a core replacement, send me your old one including $200.00 and you get one back LOL

 

I estimate that this will add another 5 kW to the cars performance, seriously, I was actually talking while the things was spinning first time but it was all drowned out, if you look at the vid the camera moves back and fourth, it was actually the pressure I was fighting while filming.

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Might have to wear some protection to prevent your ears bleeding. 

Opening your mouth could be similar to not having the 'blueberry quite right' in the three course meal chewing gum!!          (Charlie and the chocolate factory)

 

Fit four of them and point them down - VTOL ZED  8)

 

Just $200.  I'm pretty sure that Hugh Grant paid more than that for his blow j08  ;D

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OK, so the vid on Youtube speaks a 1000 words, however the following are the sequence of modifications that had to be undertaken to get to that point.

 

The problem I was alluding too previously is that the placement of the VT Blower in the Zed housing was easy, however the VT blower rotates in the opposite direction to the original Zed motor, reversing polarity wouldn't work either as the Squirrel cage fins were designed to rotate in the direction of the motor.

 

Therefore in order to actually get the set up to work, the entire enclosure had to be reversed, the side of the enclosure where the motor originally bolted to now had to become the inlet side facing the plenum intake while that side had to become the motor mounting side, this meant that 3 brackets needed to be removed and reset on their opposite facing side.

 

You will all probably think now that this is a hell of a lot of work, it isn't really and I found that I knocked it over very quickly, the hardest parts to doing this mod where actually drilling out the factory spot welds and cutting out the motor recess in the enclosure.

 

Blower pic #8 shows one of the brackets I have predrilled the spot welds to indicate where they are.

 

Blower pic #9 shows where the bracket was and where it would end up sitting in its new position as seen in the bottom right of the pic.

 

Blower pic #10 shows the second bracket also predrilled in its original position.

 

Blower pic #11 shows the repositioned bracket now in the bottom left of the pic.

 

These are the new mounting positions for the enclosure.

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In order to position these mounts in their new correct positions so allowing them to use the original mounting nuts of the plenum intake, I had to nip away 2 small corners as seen by the blue tape.

 

Pic #12 shows the required cut lines along the tape line.

 

Pic #13 shows these corners cut away and the remnants sitting on the tape.

 

Pic #14 shows where the new brackets would now sit after I mounted the enclosure in place and market the hole positions for the mounting bolts.

 

Pic #15 I drilled these holes, then placed the enclosure on the intake, cleaned the paint off the weld sections and then bolted the brackets in place, using the drilled out spots I then welded the brackets into position.

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Pic #16 in this series shows the welded brackets in place and the 2 sections bolted together.

 

Pic #17 shows the new unit now trial bolted to the inside of the car, I used a clamp to hold the new blower less the squirrel cage in place to see how everything lined up, so far so good.

 

Pic #18 shows the now cut away section of the new motor side, I used a angle grinder to do this and then having left a few mm's of meat used a flapper on a drill to camfer the edges until the motor and squirrel cage seated properly in position.

 

Pic #19 now shows the assy in place within the enclosure, I was extremely happy with how it all came together, the flow dynamics of the positioning promised that I should see or rather feel an extremely good flow of air due to the tight fit and subsequent compression of incoming air.

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Only one major mod was left, this was to create the mounts for the motor to bolt to the enclosure, in the original set up the enclosure has nuts welded to the inner sides of the plating to which bolts would secure the motor in place.

 

Pic #20 shows the final position of the seated motor, using some blue tape, I marked the bolt holes.

 

Pic #21 shows these holes now drilled out.

 

Pic #22 shows 3 bolts M6 from memory, now in position, I fitted them from the inside and then used nuts on the outside to bolt them in place tightly and square true, I then mig welded them in place from the inside and remover the outer nuts, thereafter I bolted the motor in position.

 

Pic #23 shows the new motor bolted in place looking at it from the intake plenum side, the cut out you see it through is actually the side where the motor originally mounted and as you can see the Zed squirrel was noticeably smaller than its replacement.

 

I will next do a series on the final part of this modification which involves some re-plumbing of the feed duct to the heater housing, don't fret, I have a great solution.

 

Cheers

 

John

 

P.S. The VT1 motor and squirrel set me back $55.00

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Ok so we now all realise that in order to do this retrofit you need to basically turn the enclosure upside down, for myself I'm happy to do and go throughthis as the end result is I will have a far better system with the air-con and since the car is stripped down it's accommodating to do so.

 

However in saying that the problem now lays with how to connect the blower outlet to the heater / air con box ? as usual its amazing what kind of inspiration you can get by just going down to Bunnings, i wanted to obtain off the shelf items anyone here could access in order to achieve the best result and write up a valid tutorial.

 

Pic #24 Walking around with the factory connector I came across these in plumbing, they are drainage traps that sit below common taps embedded in the concrete.

 

Pic #25 They come in 2 pieces, the removable matrix and the main body, some quick brainstorming and $13.00 later it was back to the snake pit and start modifying, here you can see the matrix sitting over the exhaust port of the blower enclosure.

 

Pic # 26 shows the cut out requirement as outlined by the blue tape.

 

Pic #27 Using some tin snips I cut each brace away, the fit was nice and tight, I will later urethane this in place and plug up the outer cavities with urethane also.

 

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Pic # 28 shows the shaft section fitted over the matrix, although the matrix will be urethaned in position, I will use 3 self tappers to secure the shaft section to the matrix in final assy, the fit is tight so no sealent material will be required.

 

Pics #29 and #30 show the heater resistor in place sitting in its original factory position.

 

Pic # 31 This is the factory connector between the enclosure and heater box, the next item to tackle.

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Pic #32 I cut the connector in 2, the triangular side slips into the inlet side of the heater box and basically sits there, the other end which progresses into a square union that had previously connected to blower enclosure was discarded, I have taped it in place for the moment, but this also will be permanently fastened in place using urethane.

 

Pic #33 shows this item now in position in the heater intake.

 

Pic #34 here both units and the new flanges in place and their relevance to one and other in the mod, I will be fabricating the connector manifold in the next day or so.

 

Cheers

 

John

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Updated Install Video.

 

Just did the first install test run of the VT1 blower upgrade in the Zed for those that may be interested.

 

Cheers

 

John

 

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John,

 

is that the fan running at its full speed, ie are you running through the switch.  Even with the holes, that's very good output.  I'm guessing that when the dash and carpets etc are in it will be much quieter.  I think you have done a great job.

 

Now while you wait for the monster motor, you can build more of them for us ;D

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John,

 

is that the fan running at its full speed, ie are you running through the switch.  Even with the holes, that's very good output.  I'm guessing that when the dash and carpets etc are in it will be much quieter.  I think you have done a great job.

 

Now while you wait for the monster motor, you can build more of them for us ;D

 

Simon yes that was running off a half dead battery I have so wasn't at max power, I wired it straight to the motor however i have also tried it via the speed control and all 4 levels work.

 

Remember that the sound you are hearing is also the air rushing into the plenum from the scuttle area, as in NO WINDSCREEN LOL and yes once the dash is in and all the carpets etc then the noise should be dampened and not bouncing off bare metal.

 

Like I said, happy to do so on an exchange basis, have it all down pat now but I have to change some things in the tutorial as I modified the design about half way through.

 

Was reading Johnny RBZ's upgrade to full electronic climate control today and gave me an idea, so I'm looking at retro fitting a 180SX unit as pictured with full actuators replacing the vacuum system.

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  • 6 years later...

Once I had undercoated the components and enameled them black, re-assy was as follows, I set a rubber "O" ring in place at the base using some engine gasket silicon.

 

The following shows the re-assy process. in the last of the 3 pics you can see that I have re-fitted the base plug with it's internal components and upper copper washer, around the top of the base you will also note a new rubber "O" ring, this was the original failure point, the "O" ring closes against the seat of the feed tube, when the valve is in either the open or closed position this does the job of sealing the assy, once this goes you end up with a swimming pool in the cabin.

Hey John, hoping you will see this, have you just used a standard type of o-ring here? Have you had any issues with this since you changed the o-ring? (yes i know its been over 6 years, haha)

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