Hey guys, sure is getting cold up here in Michigan.

So, about a year ago I stripped some more of my engine bay, and when I did that I eliminated the hoses for the heater. About a month ago, I found out I'd be driving the 7 a bit longer into the cold season than I had intended, so I hooked the heater hoses back up.

Obviously I did something wrong when I hooked them back up, because I've got no heat at all. Best I can achieve is a "not exactly cold" draft of air. And like I said, it's getting cold (22 this morning), and before long I'll need to defrost the windshied, etc.

So, please take a look at my current state, and if you could tell me what I need to move where in order to get coolant flowing through the heater core again I will be forever grateful.




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Okay the factory heater hose routes from the rad to the metal pipe to where u have it hooked up on the firewall. The other one goes to the T fitting below the oil Cooler. Not to the oil cooler. The one u have plugged on the metal line is what goes to the oil cooler. Idk exactly how the stock oil cooler works but u might be at a standstill with the fluid..

 

Yeah, figured it was screwed up. I don't seem to be having any cooling issues, so the oil cooler must be getting what it needs this way. Now I just need to figure out how to get what I need, and we can both be happy again.

 

since you have the beehive [austin powers] oh beehive! [/austin powers]

the rear left of the engine has a T fitting, the straight leg goes to N231-15-530A which goes to the oil cooler. the rear facing barb gets N231-15-550 and goes to the left side heater pipe.

the exit of the oil cooler goes all the way over to the pipe on the right side that eventually goes to the bottom of the radiator, N231-15-540B. the exit of the heater goes to the other barb on the same pipe 8871-61-212 is the hose

so the two coolers (oil and heater) are in parallel

 

Since you have an 84-85 model, coolant is always supposed to flow through the heater core. Am I right about that, Mike? Thus the steel hardline on the passenger side of the engine bay that runs from the radiator up to the firewall, is supposed to have a restrictor in one of the fittings. It has two fittings, like a T, and one goes to the heater core while the other goes to the beehive. But it's been a while since I did a beehive car so I don't recall which.

In the past I've advocated removing this restrictor, but that was always on '83 or older cars with a manual valved heater core that was using a beehive (yes I put a beehive setup in my '81 once to test run an engine). Since then I've swapped the hardline over the a 79-82 style which is open (no restrictor). Interestingly, my GSL-SE's hardline does have a restrictor.

Oh, ok. That makes sense. The restrictor goes to the heater core so the fully open outlet goes to the beehive.

 

it dawned on me why they did it in parallel when i wrote that last night, its because the oil cooler needs water flow all the time, and the heater has a valve in it, and it doesn't have water flow unless the heater is on.

i remember the restrictor, but i haven't had a beehive car in so long i don't remember which circuit its on.

the last one i had was an 83 LE, which was a really fun car!

 

Thanks for the input guys. I'll have to try to get this figured out this weekend.

 

Okay, I've had to work and haven't had a chance to dig into this yet. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time wrapping my head around this problem, but I am.

Can somebody assist me in my brain dead state of mind by answering two questions for me?

1. Why do I not have heat with my current setup?
2. What do I have to move where to get it?

Sorry for asking you to spoon feed me like a two year old, but I'm just a tad overwhelmed at the moment and don't have the time to figure it out for myself. Thanks guys.

 

Cause you have the hoses hooked up wrong. The ones you have are not routed correctly. My guess is that you have caused the water to flow thru the oil cooler first, and then your heater core. Either that or you have two flows fighting each other in opposite directions. Just get the missing one or two hoses and hook it up the way it's supposed to be. You'll have heat then.

If you need a drawing let me know. I can throw something together in MS paint.

Jamie

 

See my diagram. There are four total hoses. The hose going from your radiator pipe to the passenger firewall nipple is correct. Your homemade hose at the firewall driver side nipple is wrong. You are missing at least two hoses, maybe a third. You definitely need the long hose that goes from the driverside firewall nipple to the engine T. You also definitely need the one that goes from the radiator pipe T (the one you have capped) to the top beehive nipple. The fourth hose that isn't visible in any of your pictures is the little J shaped hose that goes from the bottom of the beehive to the engine T. I'm assuming you have that one in place. It might be a good idea to replace it if yours is old. It gets soaked in oil from the beehive, and fails pretty frequently.



Mazdatrix sells the hoses here:
http://mazdatrix.com/bhose1b.htm

I think you need 15-540B-N231 and 15-5500-N231. The little J shaped hose is 15-530A-N231 if you don't have that one, or need to replace it.

 

exactly what glazed said in his drawing. I think ur not gettin heat cuz ur at a standstill,, the fluid going towards eachother and just being neutral.

 

If the flows are fighting each other, hopefully you had enough oil cooling all this time!

On one beehive setup I've done for an R5 13B in the GLC, I added a Racing Beat oil pressure and temp adaptor (the blue one they sell) so I can monitor temps. The hose routing I came up with is similar to stock but because it's got an older valved heater core, I was able to get away without any retrictors in the system. Just FYI; you might want to pick up the RB temp/pressure adaptor, especially since you autocross.

 

Thanks Jamie, that's exactly what I needed!

The biggest problem was that I couldn't find the stock layout anywhere, and don't have another fb close by at hand for reference. My goal will be to get heat with as few hoses as necessary.

Anyway, now I have a better understanding of what's going on. Looks like my **** just ain't circulating, which explains the luke cool output of the heater.

Thanks again!

 

THIS thread rocks! Thanks y'all...a year later...