BluMaxx blowers

[Wildthings]

[Stuartzickefoose]

Wildthings, dont you love it when you say you have gone three years problem free, then someone tells you its gonna bow up right away and that you shouldnt have done it? dont you just love when people tell you what you can and cant do on you OWN bus?



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Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[notchboy]

[Stuartzickefoose]

did you use the 3 inch or the 4 inch in wildthings?
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Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[samwise]

[Wildthings]

[notchboy]

[Stuartzickefoose]

[pittwagen]

Back to the issue at hand and a little update.

Took the bus for a drive to the east end of our community today - about 35 km round trip. Outside temp was a couple of degrees above freezing when I left home and closer to freezing 15 km out. Took the hvac thermometer and the temp at the dump tube outlet was 201deg.F. Inside the lower floor outlet was 151deg. and the defrost was 138deg. Thermometer was left in for about 3 min. in each location. This was after about 20 min. of driving.

I was surprised to see the 201 at the dump tube. The others are what I normally see after a half hr. or so. The next question is where is the temp. drop happening so the bus will be going on the hoist to see where some insulation could be most effective. All the joints are tight and I have an all metal booster fan under the front floor.

I'm not complainimg as the cab temp. is very nice and combined with a heated seat the driving experience is great. I would like to reduce the heat loss nonetheless.

FYI.

[Stuartzickefoose]

okay, heated seat is on my list....eventually...

and im going to get a booster fan for near the pedal area also, as i want more air pressure, temp is good already (could be much better if my heater boxes werent effed) so i will do the simple things first
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Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[Wildthings]

[Stuartzickefoose]

maybe the tubes that dump the heat at the HEX in the back when the flaps are shut, so from outside the bus, right back by the HEX? (Heat EXchangers)

i could be wrong, but iv heard them called that before...
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Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[NASkeet]

[Bajatacoma]

One thing I'd try that I feel helped me was to change the corrugated tube running rear to front for a smooth tube. The corrugations disrupt the airflow. A smooth straight pipe is also much easier to insulate which also seems to help.

Of course all of this needs to be done in conjunction with sealing up as many leaks as possible including the nose vent and insulating the metal walls/roof. Replacing the fittings where the pedals go through the floor definitely helps keep your feet warmer as does adding some insulation, even if it's just a carpet scrap.
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'78 Westy

Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?
Hunter S Thompson

[ManFromNapa]

[pittwagen]

It goes without saying that your heating system needs to be working correctly with all parts installed and it needs to be as leak free as it can be. Without that you are wasting your time. What year is your bus?

I listed the 3 major components - 3 speed switch and resistor pack (one piece) that works with the switch from a Rabbit and the all metal blower assembly from an early T4 bus. Don't know when they changed to plastic but my 79 is plastic as was the 77 I recently parted. I would be concerned that the plastic blowers may not surviive the heat. Another advantage to the early blowers is the motor can be easily taken apart and rebuilt if needed.

The items may be available in the Classified or over on the VW Vortex (for the Rabbit parts) or if you are lucky someone may be parting a vehicle near you. You will also need a couple of pieces of muffler pipe to link the inlet and one outlet of the blower and some hose clamps and a bracket to hold the 3 speed rabbit switch under the edge of the dash. The other outlet is blocked off. You need to remove the flap in the one discharge side of the blower. I removed the other one as well even though that side is blocked off. Didn't want any rattles. I made a plug from some 22 ga. sheet. There is a photo of the under floor installation in my gallery - pg. 3 towards the bottom.

[ManFromNapa]

Thanks pittwagen.

I have a 71. No leaks in my heating, and everything works. It's just not a lot of air.

I was mostly concerned with the resistor pack. I was thinking about reusing a heater fan switch from a Beetle. Position 1 = off, positon 2 = Resistor to fan (low speed), position 3 no resistor (high speed).

Would something like this resistor work?

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/dcc-5206436?seid=google&gclid=CMi8n96l2LUCFQ7NnAodfEIApg

[pittwagen]

Can't help you on the beetle switch and that resistor pack. The stock blower draws about 10 amps at startup. I tried some so called heavy duty switches with a resistor built in. No go. Just wouldn't handle the amperage and overheated immediately. The rabbit resistor unit has worked well over three years and 7500+ km.

If you are running the T1 heater boxes I suspect you would see about 155 deg. maximum at the heater box outlet. My 73 beetle shows about 155 deg. at the lower footwell.

By the time the air gets to the front it has probably cooled 30+ degrees. A good quality in line blower may survive that heat. The questions you need to answer are:
- will it impact the airflow when not on?
- will it distort and warp again with it not running and the hot air passing over it?

[Stuartzickefoose]

so, i jsut installed two of these, in seperate busses.

one the guy loves.

the second the guy LOVED.

past tense. it melted on him.

best guess is the first guys heater doesnt put out a lot of heat, and the second ones did, and it melted. either way, going to run a inlet tube right in before the fan and do it again. thinking about using the under seat vent in the rear as a intake for the fan, along with the heat from the engine, to recirculate and heat the cabin air.

i mounted them both right dead center of the bus, in the middle of the fat heater tube. one was wired to a on off switch, and the other one i wired directly into the hear control switch on the dash, so when you pull down on the red lever (both of these were 77 campers) the engine booster fan, AND the inline fan will turn on. once i have the new fan figured out, ill put up more info.


on a side note, i think i can get more heat out of mine if i go through it a little more in depth, so i wont be modifying mine for a little bit, but when i do, ill be putting in the 4" one, dead center in the bigger tube. should put out quite a bit more CFM then a 3" one, creating a better defrost ability.
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Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[airschooled]

I think a key component of Wildthing's setup, is that he only used one heat exchanger to the fan, (the other is diverted under the rear seats.) He also uses the walk-thru vent as a cool-air intake for the fan, and the fan is mounted in FRONT of the walk-thru vent. All these things work together, which is likely why his fan has lasted so long. It's no surprise that if you dump BOTH heat exchangers on the fan with NO cool air intake the fan will melt
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