It's about the heater - '90 Westy

[RBEmerson]

Long story short, the darn heater won't shut up. I've replaced the OEM valve with a new valve, and tried the Intrepid Overland valve. In the end, there's still too much hot air coming out of the vents.

The obvious question is "what about the shutters?" Short answer: pulling the dash is out of my skill set. The guys I take the Westy to have have pulled the dash in the past, and they say they're afraid that messing with the shutters is going to break more things than it'll fix. I believe them (Scott & Co. are pretty fearless on older cars - if they're worried, I listen).

So, Plan B is to add a shutoff valve, a winter/summer valve, accessible without dropping the spare, but maybe behind the glovebox, or some place that gives a a cable routing with the least friction. Rather than reinvent the wheel, has anybody done something similar?

Plan B, sub-part 1 is to use a solenoid valve of some sort - no cable throw to speak of, closes only when power's applied. Again, has anybody done that?
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[Ahwahnee]

I added a flush tee to the heater hose as shown. Seems like this might be an easy to reach location for a shutoff valve.

[dobryan]

I added a Ford heater valve inside, behind the big center panel, and used the stock heater cable to activate it. I left the original valve in place fully open.

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Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2010 Subaru EJ25 (Vanaru) and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[RBEmerson]

[RBEmerson]

[jimf909]

[dobryan]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000C2UVVO
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Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2010 Subaru EJ25 (Vanaru) and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[RBEmerson]

@jim909 Thanks for the link!

@dobryan Number duly noted - thanks!

Ford front heater valve is definitely the answer to my OP.
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[Bulli Klinik]

I just installed the Intrepid valve. I believe that it's supposed to fully close. It might be in the adjustment of the cable. I'd start with that.
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PM me about quality metal-work on your vehicle.
Mike K
Bulli Klinik
Colorado Springs

[MsTaboo]

I have the Intrepid heater hose shutoff valve, it closes completely. The valve is pretty stiff and you need to work it slowly so as to not kink the cable.
You may want to think about adding the Intrepid air flap also, it cuts all airflow through the heater box, shutting down hot summer air (and dust, fumes etc.)

https://intrepidoverland.com/shop/cabin-air-control/
No need to pull the dash to install.
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Currently:
'90 Syncro Westy 3 knob w/Zetec

The information age has morphed into the age of disinformation and willful ignorance. Agnotology!
When you stir up shit you're bound to get some on yourself.
Resist Kleptocratic Oligarchy (and Idiocracy)!

[DanHoug]

i can't speak to the Intrepid valve but the OE valve has a slight channel in the ball that bleeds thru a small amount of coolant. i suspect this is intended to keep fresh, non-depleted coolant in the heater core. the cure is to increase the non-heated airflow thru the core and ducting so have the levers wide open. that will quickly remove any heat soak from the core and firewall and it will be ambient outside air temp coming out of the ducts.

if you close the bottom, blue lever, it will close off the ducts leading to the door channel and to the vent openings above the slider. this can result in more air flow thru the front ducts at the expense of noise. the ram air effect from the intake scoop is strong, you won't need to run the fan unless crawling at city speeds.

there are 'hot footwell kits' available to insulate the floor from this radiator heat. they work but you can improve the source of the heat by increasing air flow thru the radiator by making sure:

- side card board is in place

- radiator and condenser fins are clean but most importantly, the space BETWEEN the condenser and radiator is clean. this can get a huge accumulation of debris and greatly slow down air flow thru the radiator. this slowed air flow contributes to the hot firewall.

- removal of the ac condenser, akin to a holy sin by some, greatly increases airflow thru the radiator itself, providing greater engine cooling AND a cooler firewall.
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-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com

[zululep]

My heater valve stopped functioning a few years ago, and the heat was always on. Cable worked fine but something internal was kaput. After reading here how bad the new aftermarket valves were, and how finicky some of the more robust alternatives could be as far as cable travel, etc., I installed a shut off valve in one of the heater hoses. I had deleted my rear heater a few years prior and had connected the heater hose ends with barbed brass connectors. I just replaced one of those with a high temp, quarter-turn ball valve. I can run it open, closed or anywhere in between. It's very easy to reach through the right rear wheel arch. It's not as convenient as an in-cabin control, but I've found you can somewhat control the amount of hot air coming into the van by adjusting the levers and vents, and it's a 30 second pit stop to adjust the valve if you need to. And no crawling under the van is required. You can see the blue valve handle in the pic taken looking through the wheel well. Probably not for everyone, but it works for us.

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1984 Westfalia with Bostig Zetec

[Wildthings]

The Ford heater valves are directional, installing with the flow going the wrong way will cause the valve to leak through. There are two Ford style valves that look almost identical, except that one is the mirror image of the other, with one being for one flow direction and the second for the opposite flow direction.

As for the slit cut into the ball that is common on heater valves, the slit allows for more precise metering when little water flow is required.

If the cables are messed up in the dash the valve can not be shut fully either. This is an easy mod to get better function of the valve. Just shorten the inner wire of the cable so it protrudes no more than necessary from its sheath. This will stiffen the cable lessening the chance it will bend.

This is how the cable was originally. This cable had been kinked and mostly straightened.

I originally did the mod nearly twenty years ago, and have had zero trouble with the cable kinking since.

.

[harvgwen]

Wild things, I think that’s exactly what my cable needs. My valve moves very freely on its own, but the cable has a hard time pushing it without bending.
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1986 Westfalia Vanagon, 2.2 Subaru
Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

[WillRB]

I just put a ball valve and inline with heater hose behind glove box and use it as a seasonal shut off.
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1984 Vanagon Westfalia w/ Subaru Conversion (99 Legacy 2.2 Phase II) 2WD 4speed 4.57 R/P (.828 straight cut 4th) GT TBD

[DanHoug]

[RBEmerson]

The rest of the story: Installed a separate cutoff valve that accepts the heater slider cable, and no more unwanted hot air out of the heater. A little improvising was needed to get the sense of the slider correct (i.e., slide to HOT to open the valve).

End result, only ambient temp air out of the vents. Sorta.

We still get unwanted hot air coming into the cabin. But that's a topic for another thread. Hot air leaks thread
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.