What did you do to your FB today?
03-14-14, 10:22 AM
#4481
Rotary Enthusiast
front BBK brackets came in. installed. looks good
03-14-14, 04:51 PM
#4483
Mentioned adding the heater to my FB to EV conversion. Since the actual heater box is a little small for what I want to do I decided to re-purpose the AC evaporator box. The first photo is the AC evaporator box. The second photo is of the 85 GSL evaporator assembly. It is about 9x8x8 inches. I had never seen one so I thought a photo might interest others. The third photo is of the pair of ceramic heater elements from a couple of $15 space heaters from a discount store. I elected to keep the high temperature plastic to hold the elements, just removing the motors/fans and trimming the housings so the elements are adjacent. I will paint the 1/8" plywood plate to seal the wood and seal the air gaps with high temp silicone gasket material (650 degree F). The last photo shows the assembly sitting in the evaporator enclosure. I need to come up with some way to mount the plywood plate in the enclosure and then fabricate some control electronics to turn it on and off. I've been thinking of doing a quick and dirty PWM and replacing the temperature control with a pot that will control the PWM. I believe the temperature control just changes the amount of hot water that is allowed to flow through the heater core. This may not be necessary and I am hoping it won't be. More updates later. For those who are curious the ceramic cores are a positive temperature coefficient device that when cold draws about 16 amps from a 120vac outlet when first turned on and drops to 10 amps within a few seconds. I expect to see a higher initial current because my battery voltage is 175 volts right off the charge and since I have two elements it should drop off to around 20 amps total giving me about 3500 watts of heat which is about 12000 BTU. This may be excessive and I will have to keep an eye on it. There is an overtemp sensor adjacent to each element which I will use to break the current. Hopefully this happens before the enclosure melts. More later.
03-15-14, 02:18 AM
#4488
Full Member
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Mississippi Gulf Coast
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Mentioned adding the heater to my FB to EV conversion. Since the actual heater box is a little small for what I want to do I decided to re-purpose the AC evaporator box. The first photo is the AC evaporator box. The second photo is of the 85 GSL evaporator assembly. It is about 9x8x8 inches. I had never seen one so I thought a photo might interest others. The third photo is of the pair of ceramic heater elements from a couple of $15 space heaters from a discount store. I elected to keep the high temperature plastic to hold the elements, just removing the motors/fans and trimming the housings so the elements are adjacent. I will paint the 1/8" plywood plate to seal the wood and seal the air gaps with high temp silicone gasket material (650 degree F). The last photo shows the assembly sitting in the evaporator enclosure. I need to come up with some way to mount the plywood plate in the enclosure and then fabricate some control electronics to turn it on and off. I've been thinking of doing a quick and dirty PWM and replacing the temperature control with a pot that will control the PWM. I believe the temperature control just changes the amount of hot water that is allowed to flow through the heater core. This may not be necessary and I am hoping it won't be. More updates later. For those who are curious the ceramic cores are a positive temperature coefficient device that when cold draws about 16 amps from a 120vac outlet when first turned on and drops to 10 amps within a few seconds. I expect to see a higher initial current because my battery voltage is 175 volts right off the charge and since I have two elements it should drop off to around 20 amps total giving me about 3500 watts of heat which is about 12000 BTU. This may be excessive and I will have to keep an eye on it. There is an overtemp sensor adjacent to each element which I will use to break the current. Hopefully this happens before the enclosure melts. More later.
03-15-14, 08:41 AM
#4490
I am a little afraid that the ducting will melt at this level. But I have not finalized how I want to hook up the elements. I also have days when I am at work and it is -20F out and I want to be comfortable to drive home before I get home. So that much heating while not needed to keep the passenger compartment warm would help get it there fast.
03-16-14, 11:26 AM
#4498
Moderator
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Location: https://www2.mazda.com/en/100th/
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03-16-14, 01:17 PM
#4499
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: ohio
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Sunny warm California......here i went out to the shop and looked at the car and turned around and went back in the house so I wouldnt get frostbite. 17* F here in Ohio.
03-16-14, 04:49 PM
#4500
Mentioned adding the heater to my FB to EV conversion. Since the actual heater box is a little small for what I want to do I decided to re-purpose the AC evaporator box. The first photo is the AC evaporator box. The second photo is of the 85 GSL evaporator assembly. It is about 9x8x8 inches. I had never seen one so I thought a photo might interest others. The third photo is of the pair of ceramic heater elements from a couple of $15 space heaters from a discount store. I elected to keep the high temperature plastic to hold the elements, just removing the motors/fans and trimming the housings so the elements are adjacent. I will paint the 1/8" plywood plate to seal the wood and seal the air gaps with high temp silicone gasket material (650 degree F). The last photo shows the assembly sitting in the evaporator enclosure. I need to come up with some way to mount the plywood plate in the enclosure and then fabricate some control electronics to turn it on and off. I've been thinking of doing a quick and dirty PWM and replacing the temperature control with a pot that will control the PWM. I believe the temperature control just changes the amount of hot water that is allowed to flow through the heater core. This may not be necessary and I am hoping it won't be. More updates later. For those who are curious the ceramic cores are a positive temperature coefficient device that when cold draws about 16 amps from a 120vac outlet when first turned on and drops to 10 amps within a few seconds. I expect to see a higher initial current because my battery voltage is 175 volts right off the charge and since I have two elements it should drop off to around 20 amps total giving me about 3500 watts of heat which is about 12000 BTU. This may be excessive and I will have to keep an eye on it. There is an overtemp sensor adjacent to each element which I will use to break the current. Hopefully this happens before the enclosure melts. More later.
If you think it'll be too much heat, you could wire them so that you can run one or both, and only run one when you don't need as much heat. PWMs a good idea, too, and much more elegant.