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This is what I used to create the original thread. Unfortunately, I only had the pictures separate before tinypic died. These are approximately in the right spot. Should get enough info to be useful.
Here's a similar pictorial walkthrough of the heater core on an FB.
I decided this was necessary after finding a mouse nest in the core. Darn things made taking the dash out to disinfect everything sort of a must... every vent, the fan blower, carpet and all soft goods have to be steam cleaned too! yay.
This was done on a manual controlled heater core. The only difference with the solenoids would be removing those and keeping track of how they link up to the cams.
Here’s what I used for the foam with McMaster part numbers.
8785K17 High-Temperature Silicone Foam Sheet, Adhesive-Back, 3/16" Thickness, 12" X 12", Ultra Soft
8647K22 Weather- and Abrasion-Resistant Foam Sheet, Blended EPDM, Ultra Soft, 3/16" Thickness, 42" WD, 1' LG
93695K54 Oil-Rst Fire-Retardant Blended Buna-N Foam, 50 ft. Adhesive-Back Strip, 1/4" Thickness, 1/2" WD
The only gripe I have with McMaster is they determine shipping costs after the order is made and the sizing on the boxes they use is say… interesting. Not a big deal at all though.
I decided to use high temperature silicone for the baffles that would be near the core and oil resistant foam elsewhere instead of the ones used in the 3rd gen thread. The adhesive backed strip is a little weird, it is very light and airy and once stuck to a surface the foam rips apart instead of the adhesive peeling off. I ended up using lacquer thinner to clean up the old foam, just pour it on and wipe away. It helps to have a shop vac handy to clean up the eraser boogers and old foam dust.
I also did this to an NA miata heater core and heater blower; similar steps overall. That one I actually used and had time to troubleshoot a few things. The black foam was a little too stiff to get a consistent seal on the fresh air flap when closed. Adjusting the cable got it to seal well. That is also why I would lean towards using the softer silicone (and maybe even a little thicker material) on the fresh air flap in the blower.
To take the two halves apart, pop off the spring clips all the way around, including a tiny one at the top. Easiest way to do this is with a flat head into one side of the clip and pry towards the center. To pop the lever arms off the rods I used an adjustable wrench and a flat head screw driver.
Then unscrew all of the lever arms that hook up to the flaps.
Unscrew the copper tubing mounts.
Once done, the whole thing can be pulled apart. It is a pretty tight fit on the core itself, there is a good amount of resistance.
Once apart, I cleaned up all the surfaces, straightened the fins and soaked the entire core in Lysol overnight. Some of the mouse debris was not able to be sucked up or blown out... so disinfecting it was the only thing I could think of.
That blue stuff is the Lysol. The orange scented stuff smells odd.
Made some templates out of paper (used whatever was handy). Dry fit, then glue time. The adhesive backed silicone foam stuck very well to the metal flap and pretty well to the clean plastic one. I used a good amount of jb weld on the plain black foam for the rest.
Flaps the next day after drying, looking pretty good.
These areas will have to be closely checked upon reassembly. The foam I used was a little thick and caused too much friction when the flaps were installed. I cut the thickness down and then sanded the surface smooth again. Both foams sanded reasonably well.
Reassembly
If I were to do it again, I would try and find a foam that has skin as a top layer with a low density backing similar to the top flap in the assembly originally. There are silicone sheets available with a skin. Overall the orange silicone that I used would work well on everything, just a little more expensive. The black stuff I found will work well enough though just a little too stiff. Everything came out pretty well. It will be much better than the mouse nest, foam dust, weird smell spewing thing it was before. For a future build where I am more concerned with getting everything exactly right, I would sand blast and powdercoat/paint all the metal parts and polish up the copper tubing.
swbtm would like us to RE-archive this Thread, in place of the earlier version which is now missing these photos. I suggested he start it again here...
I think there has been some miscommunication. Both of these new threads (heater core and heater blower) were posted to replace their counterparts in the archives. Those threads from 2016 used tinypic to host the images and were lost. These two new ones are uploaded directly to rx7club.
- Requesting the title of the thread be returned to the previous name.
- Then can the two new threads (core and blower) be moved into the archives please?
- Last thing I requested is to delete the old tinypic archived threads, is this possible?
Thank you.
If there is a way for me to have temporary moderator privileges to do this, phase let me know. Thank you again.
This thread will remain open and available in the main 1st Gen section. Thank you, swbtm, for refreshing your original thread with photos hosted on RX7Club!
Requesting this thread be moved over to the archive. The "new" thread is more useful with the pictures than the "old" version at this point. Thank you.
02-09-20, 03:25 PM
Heater Core Restoration with Photos (NEW)
