Modern car heater/A/C unit, best, most compact

[Bilkob]

My Citroen CX GTI turbo resto/mod/restore/ project thing continues at a somewhat diminished pace, but it’s still going
Annoyingly the new clutch I’d ordered from Helix turned up, wrong spec, Grrrrrrrrr
So that’s another 2 weeks before I can get the engine and gearbox back in. They were very apologetic, and I’m convinced I need an updated clutch so I’ll just have to wait
In the meantime, I have a DTR T2 gearbox now ready to go( longer gearing) and a fully re-piped engine bay and front chassis area courtesy of Plaeides in the Fens
I’ve also acquired a fabulous period Turbo interior in epic burgundy leather!
My thoughts now turn to the historicity awful CX heating and ventilation. I’ve stripped out the entire heater’tower’ assembly and all the internal matrix, ducting etc......
I was planning to use one of the stand alone heat,A/C units from Car Builder Solutions or Vintage Air but couldn’t help thinking -what about just adapting a modern unit from a recent car?
Although modern cars tend to be dull as dishwater there’s no denying that the heaters and A/C just WORK!
I’d welcome suggestions on any units that people have had experience of.

[Knoxville2410]

Not sure how useful this is but my old MK3 MR2 had a fantastic heater/AC unit. I guess it would be a fairly old design so should be simple to modify. Probably the same found in the Celica too.

[Bilkob]

Thanks for suggestion

[Fastdruid]

The issue you may run into is that the modern ones are all designed to squeeze into the available space and aren't particularly easy to modify.

This place has a bunch of compact units https://www.t7design.co.uk/ (I think the owner is on PH too).
I got my heater/AC unit from here https://nostalgicac.com/ (while I was on holiday in the US! Unsure what postage would be like )

[snotrag]

Knoxville2410 said:

Not sure how useful this is but my old MK3 MR2 had a fantastic heater/AC unit. I guess it would be a fairly old design so should be simple to modify. Probably the same found in the Celica too.

On a similar note - the HVAC unit from a Mk1 or Mk2 MX-5 is small, neatly designed, quite 'square' and uniform in size (thus easy to install) and very, very powerful. A/C versions are available.



Inlet is the triangular shapeed hole (this is a LHD version)

2x metal hose stubs for the heat exchanger on the other side.


Would definitely look for something from a small, compact modern-ish car.

[Krikkit]

Sticking in-brand, the Citroen C2 and the Saxo/106 units are both small and quite neat.

[Bilkob]

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated, I think I need to look for the simplest, most compact unit
As an aside, if anyone is interested I could start a thread on here about the build, where would be the best place (forum sub-section) to put it..?
Cheers Chris

[Fastdruid]

Reader's Cars.