Natural airflow to V8S / S3 / S4 heater

[Top Gear TVR]

Has anyone gotten a fresh air feed to drive the heater with natural airflow on the move?

If so, how did you do it?

[phillpot]

Top Gear TVR said:

If so, how did you do it?

Take the roof off, all the fresh air you could want ...

[Top Gear TVR]

It's the no need to use the fan thing I want to achieve- using natural airflow instead of electricity....

[v8s4me]

The only air to the inside of the car is via the hoses from the vents in the nose of the bonnet to the "eyeballs" in the centre console. Maybe you could route these to the heater box? But the air flow is pretty crap so whether it's worth the bother is debatable.

[Top Gear TVR]

That's the idea. Just wondered if it had been done?

[v8s4me]

I think Barry may have done something along these lines on his old 'S'.

[GreenV8S]

I don't see why you would bother. It already provides hot air in summer and cold air in winter, and with the fan on you get more or less the same with more noise. What's the problem?

[Top Gear TVR]

A useful comment? 😜

[glenrobbo]

Well Peter, that made me chuckle!

[Top Gear TVR]

I'm going back to farcebook

[GreenV8S]

Joking aside, you'd need to effectively convert the existing fug stirrer into a cold air inlet heater. The fug stirrer seems like the better approach to me since there is very limited heat output (in mine, anyway) and the cabin is not well sealed or insulated. That would require fabbing some ducts into the cold side of the matrix. If you're doing that, it might be an opportunity to put a higher output fan/heater unit in. It does seem a bit silly to have such an ineffective heating system given the amount of heat the engine puts out.

[Barry S1]

I connected the eyelet things to the heater good for de misting the windows but still needed the fan on

[Griffinr]

When I had my S3 it had no fresh air hoses but I refitted the passenger side one between the bonnet and the bulkhead. I did not connect it to the eyeball vent as the inside of the bulkhead tube is very close to the fan inlet which allows the fan to suck in some fresh air, not a lot but enough to make a difference to demisting. Heater was hot enough to burn your feet even in the coldest weather.
Rob.

Edited by Griffinr on Saturday 30th September 23:09