Heater

The heater of the Alfa 33:

It is much to big to place somewhere in a beetle, and it's shape is kinda awkward. So I pulled it apart, and the only thing I found useful was the heater core. It's just like a mini-radiator:

I wanted to place the heater under the rear seat, and guide the coolant-lines through the original warm-air channels. The blower of the Alfa 33 prooved to be too big. But luckily I had a heater from a VW Golf 1 diesel lying around in the garage. That blower was smaller (and strangely enough, the heater core was bigger..), so I am going to use the blower of the VW Golf and the heater core of the Alfa 33.

I want to place it in this arrangement:

There's going to be a alumium housing around the heater core on which the blower will be attached. This housing will directly connect to the left heat-outlet under the rear seat. And from this housing a tube will run to the right heater outlet under the rear seat. I don't want to use the original heater channels anymore which guides warm air to the front of the car. The heater channels are like a tube inside a tube. This can cause rust because of the condensation against the warm-air tube inside the channels.

edit 06-05-2006:I created a box for the heater core. It's not finished yet, I still have to attach the blower to the box (in the picture it's only leaning against the box).

Here you can see the hole in the front of the box, this hole is going onto the standard heater outlet on the left side. In the left upper corner you can (barely) see the outlet on which a hose will be attached which will feed hot air to the right side. This outlet is made from piece a beetle air-filter (the part that feeds hot air into the filter).

The back plate can be unscrewed, revealing the heater core. The foam strips I glued on the heater core are there to ensure that all the air produced by the blower will flow through the core:

Behind the heater core is the airbox. I glued radiator foil against the sides of the box to reflect the heat. This way the heat will (hopefully) exit through the outlets, and not through the walls of the box heating the inside of the rear seat:

edit 11-05-2006:Installed in the car:

I sealed the seams with white sealant.

I still have to do the wiring (have to find a switch for it), add a duct for the right side and do the plumbing to lead the coolant to the heater.

edit 10-06-2006:Finished the wiring of the heater:

I had to route 7 wires from under the back seat to the dashboard. 3 of them are for the heater, the other 4 are for the fuel pump, water-temp, overheating-indicator-light and radiator-fan-on-indicator light.

In the dashboard, I installed a 3 speed switch from a 1987 Daihatsu Cuore (of course...):

The wiring of the heater and switch can be found in the wiring diagram I made.

I still have to get me a hose for the hot air from the heater-box to the right side heat-vent. And connect the coolant hoses, of course.

edit 28-01-2007: Installed the hose between the heater box and the right side heat-vent:

I tested the blower, and there was quite a lot of air coming out of the right side heat-vent, almost just as much as the left one.