Eliminated AC...Now What Should I Do?

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1969VADart

1969VADart

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My 69 Dart was an AC/Heat car. As part of my restomod project I decided to strip the AC components off of the car. I am keeping the AC/heater box (which I refinished) because it mounts to the firewall properly, and the control and bezel on the dash are still correct. However, since all of the AC parts are gone under the hood, I am wondering what my options are for the heater hoses under the hood? The picture below shows the way that the heater hoses are routed (based on the set up with AC, but with all of the AC stuff obviously removed). They heater hoses are routed through the vacuum valve on the passenger side fender (left side of picture). There is also a small vacuum hose routed to a vacuum connection on the back of the intake manifold. There are three additional vacuum valves on the AC/heater box. My question is, can I eliminate the vacuum valve on the fender and run the heater hoses direct (like non-AC cars) and retain everything else under the dash? Will the heat still work or more importantly will this lead to the heat feeling like it is on all the time? Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

 
Without the heater control valve, your heater core will have hot water all the time.
 
65cuda360 said:
Without the heater control valve, your heater core will have hot water all the time.
Click to expand...

There is no heater control valve on non A/C cars...they get hot water all the time, and the blend-door controls the amount of air allowed to pass through the heater core and into the cabin.
The A/C heater box has exactly the same blend door set-up as the non-A/C set-up. The heater control valve is just an extra measure to drop the overall temp inside the box assembly. You can pull it out and still have full temp control.
 
whitepunkonnitro said:
There is no heater control valve on non A/C cars...they get hot water all the time, and the blend-door controls the amount of air allowed to pass through the heater core and into the cabin.
The A/C heater box has exactly the same blend door set-up as the non-A/C set-up. The heater control valve is just an extra measure to drop the overall temp inside the box assembly. You can pull it out and still have full temp control.
Click to expand...


Be that or as may not be, I would keep the valve at least in some form. I put a simple inline ball valve in my NON AC car to shut off the core in summer. "Just that much" cooler in the cab.
 
The blend door is cable operated so sliding that lever left would block the heat out ( as much as a non a/c plenum would ). You'll still need the vacuum and reservoir for vent controls. If my memory serves, defrost is default position so without any vacuum defrost is all you could get.
 
Good to know. I don't necessarily mind leaving the valve on the fender. I just thought it would clean up the look under the hood a little bit. But if the valve will ensure better functioning of the system, it can stay.
 
Keep the valve. I plan to add a water valve to my non-factory AC cars. I know the heater doesn't put out much heat w/ its blower off, but post #2 is correct that hot water alway flows (thus post #4 is incorrect). The classic Mopar ones are expensive and a bit clunky. I got some new plastic valves cheap (Ford or such), but I need to figure how to actuate the vacuum when my under-dash AC is on. I have some vacuum solenoids.
 
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