I looked at it some, many years ago. First of all, the motor itself is
pretty wimpy as supplied, the stock fan would move more air if it was turned
faster. It is possible to rewind the armature of the factory motor to get
more speed out of it (at the cost of increased current of course).
The configuration of the heater doesn't lend itself to a centrifugal blower
(such as modern cars use), since you want the air to exit more or less
in-line with the motor axis. I also looked into using a more aggressive
pitch fan, but the original fan has a rather unique hub extension that is
hard to duplicate. Plus, the rather limited clearance between the housing
and the heater core is a problem.
I wound up building a conglomeration using a blower motor from a Dodge, with
a custom top plate for mounting, a spacer to move the original bottom
housing further away from the heater core, and fan blades from some
commercial refrigeration unit. It did seem to work somewhat better, but
honestly not worth all the effort. Although it moved more air, the air
seemed to be cooler. Plus, the lowered housing was fairly evident in the
car. My plan was to go back to the original fan and motor (rewound) and to
improve the water circulation through the heater core, by replumbing with
1/2" copper and 5/8" soft lines, plus eliminating the bend in the soft lines
right above the core (where mine always kinked). The pieces are still
laying on the workbench somewhere ...
If I were to do it again, I'd probably just adapt a heater box from another
car. Bob Schaller reported that early Spitfire heaters worked well, and
several people have written of using heaters from JC Whitney.
Randall
David A. Templeton wrote :
> Has anyone replaced the fan blades in the TR3a heater with the more modern
> barrel type blades? I suspect the motor could easily handle it,
> so I figure
> the space is the issue.
>
> Just curious, while laid up with the bummed knee
> David Templeton
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