408: A lot of heat coming through the firewall.

[dwomby]

Originally Posted by AndrewA

I guess if it's not too difficult to remove the tray it's got to be worth a try..will have a look and see what I've got on rear edge of bonnet opening but the more you can do to let heat out the better. How bad is it? I had a '62 Thunderbird that had heat soak problems and it made life very uncomfortable in all but the coldest weather ...never really got a completely satisfactory solution..

Andrew

How bad? Well, I can live with it as I don't drive it in summers here in Florida (no AC installed) but it's very noticeably a source of heat in the cabin by your legs.

I wondered about maybe cutting some holes in the panels between the engine compartment and the wheel wells but I don't know enough about the aerodynamics of the car to be sure it wouldn't make things worse. Aston Martins of that vintage had louvred panels there.

David

[AndrewA]

Just a thought and not trying to send you off on a wild goose chase but I thought I had heat soak issues early on in my ownership of this car but sorting out which vents were open - and what heater controls were doing what has made the problem vanish - I didn't do the work myself but I can ask the fellow that did. The control knobs were swapped over and when it said everything was off - it wasn't!
I've still got a bit too much fresh air on drivers side - but I can live with that.

Originally Posted by dwomby

How bad? Well, I can live with it as I don't drive it in summers here in Florida (no AC installed) but it's very noticeably a source of heat in the cabin by your legs.

I wondered about maybe cutting some holes in the panels between the engine compartment and the wheel wells but I don't know enough about the aerodynamics of the car to be sure it wouldn't make things worse. Aston Martins of that vintage had louvred panels there.

David

[dwomby]

I will check the heater controls.

David

[Giles]

Yes, to jump on a bandwagon - I had this too and the heater was constantly on. Drove from England to France in July and it was a bit of sauna.

If it's coming out from the heater, I'd check that the heater valve is working (not constantly on) and that the heater flaps are opening and closing.

You can also take the heater apart and check that the seals on it do close properly. If you are refurbishing it, the heater core is I think the same as one of the sprites.

[AndrewA]

Yes - forgotten I'd done that as well - had little matrix in heater refurbished and getting the valve to work properly - and seal correctly took a bit of time.
Good luck - but I still can't see that removing your sump guard is going to do any harm.

[dwomby]

Was just at the car (didn't check the heater controls yet) and noticed something glaring! It has a gorgeous, new aftermarket aluminium radiator and a big new single electric fan. However, I suspect the radiator is not as wide as the original because down one side there's a 1" gap and on the other side a 2.5-3" gap!!!!!

I don't think it will affect the under bonnet heat but I'll be blocking those off tomorrow!

David

[AndrewA]

Aren't gaps good?