Using an AC Vanagon heaterbox - side effects?

[airkooledchris]

I picked up another bus a few months back and im working on getting it back on the road. The PO had hacked a Vanagon heater box to connect to the baywindow fan housing for the passneger side.

I also picked up a good (i hope) used engine - and it to had been hacked to use an AC Vanagon heater box on the passenger side.

What would be the negative side effects of this?

That little fan in the engine compartment only helps a tiny bit at idle, otherwise the cooling fan itself pushes all the heat through them right?

If this was going to be a 'forever bus' for me id probably just pony up the couple hundred bucks or more than a proper exchanger would cost, but it's not.

I don't want to run it if it could hurt the motor somehow by doing this, but could certainly deal with a little inefficiency if that's the only drawback.

thanks for any tips, suggestions or tomfoolery

[airkooledchris]

What's surprising is that they used a rubber sleeve/gasket to make the connection - and somehow it never melted at all?

if I end up needing to make this thing work out id like to find some sort of metal sleeve to connect it to the cooling fan.

[Wildthings]

If the connections are decent I don't think it would hurt much. A rubber boot might work nicely here. It will not get all that hot when the engine is running, but might get hot enough to damage the rubber after shut down.