Heater upgrade with NAPA parts
Hi all, this is a great thread and I wanted to post up my experience with doing this upgrade. One thing I wanted to avoid was cutting into the metal “mushroom” in the back of the heater box and I wanted to have a clean install that looked as factory as possible. The NAPA parts below worked to accomplish this.
I used these parts and supplies for the project:
NAPA blower motor: 655-1039
NAPA fan: 655-1406
NAPA heater core
Wild Horses Air Inlet Duct Kit
Repop heater foam kit
SEMS plastic painting products
Rivet tool kit from Home Depot -approx $20
Loctite adhesive
First off was disassembling and cleaning the heater box. One thing I wished I had done right off the bat was drill out the rivets on the box for better cleaning and painting. I did eventually do this later on and it was easy. I used the SEMS products to clean and recondition the fiberglass part of the heater box. I also used the SEMS to restore my original vent assemblies. I used black POR-15 on the metal parts.
As mentioned, I didn’t want to cut into the mushroom in the box to accommodate the fan. I found that the NAPA fan was just the right size. It was at this point that I drilled out the eight or so rivets that holds the box together. Due to the extra width of the fan, it will not fit into the box any other way than taking out the rivets. It took a bit of time to figure out the foam kit. I used some rubber bands to hold the foam to the doors while the adhesive dried.
I also did not want to drill new holes into the fiberglass to install the new heater motor. After I bench tested the motor, I marked the hole pattern onto the flange of the heater motor and drilled new holes into the flange instead. I feel it is stronger this way and it let me reuse the factory screws. Using the rivet tool was super easy to get the box back together nicely and then I used a bit of black touch up paint on the new rivets to make them less noticeable. For the electrical connections, I made a simple ground wire which I plan to install to the dash. I also made a feed using a bullet connector so that I can attach the new motor to the factory wire harness.
Last thing, I like the Wild Horses air duct kit. It includes a new end piece for the heater box so that the round shaped hose included in the kit fits perfectly. Nice job as always WH! Obviously, I can’t tell you how much better my heat works yet, but I am looking forward to finding out.