damn, i never even thought of that one! thanks!!!! mine gets plenty hot there too! :thumbs:

I know the '76 and later cars had a vacuum-controlled hot water valve, that is usually missing. That might look a little more stock. It was pretty cheap from the local parts store, if I recall.

After the tests I did,I came to the same conclusion..you are correct...I came across some Dynomat Extreme (adhesive back)pads that I will test on exterior footwells..If that works fine,if not,I'll order the Thermotec aluminum product...we have been having very high (100 degree) weather and today the pass footwell got to 130 degrees F with "Keep Kool" installed inside...a complete successful failure.... :rofl:

:iagree: I installed a ball valve and it made a huge difference in cabin heat.

That valve only shuts the hot water off when the AC is turned on. So if your AC is off you get the hot water thru the heater. When I had the T-tops off my feet where really hot so I added a ball valve in addtition to the stock one and it helps a lot.

Good point...another way is a "loop" in the heat side vacuum,that does same thing..a friend did that on mine,so I can't get heat..but I can't remember how he did that..
Rich

Thermotec Products
 

Hi, I have the same problem with heat in the cabin area of my 70 Vette and I am going over to Summit to pick up my Thermoteck products for the heat shields under the foot rest area on the firewall side along with the spray adheadsive they offer, I 'll keep you informed, Jim :thumbs:

I've been working alot trying to eliminate the heat from mine as well. I found one of the greatest sources of heat is the heater/air cond box under the hood. After a drive, the exterior temp of the box was 240 deg. F. It's located less than 2" from the exhaust manifold which measured 550 deg. Even if you have headers that may run cooler, the box is still like a small oven, it's very thin and transfers the heat pretty well from the engine compartment into the ductwork. I made a temp. alumunium shield and put it between the manifold and the box and reduced the exterior temp to 120 deg. by taking the same drive on a similar day. That was only a test to see if it would work, I wouldn't recommend it as a long term fix, it's still in the same area and the aluminium transfers heat pretty well also, just a matter of time before the box would get hotter. I'm really thinking of using this stuff as a winter project. http://www.coollizard.com

I had a pretty long talk with them one day about it and it sounds pretty impressive. You have to buy a special gun to spray it.

Bill

You're on the right track, but you need to use an insulating material, not one thats good at transfering the heat.

I don't have an Ecklars book handy but, but before they used the foam collar the used a fiberglass mold covered on top by aluminuim type stuff. It was made to sit on a TH400, and it had four parts to hold it up. I'm not kidding about this get out your Ecklars book and find it. Sorry about my spelling i know its bad.
Later Al

What is this thermotec material made out of? Is it flexible to be applied to the
external surface of the seat buckets and tranny tunnel?

Did the 80-82 cars have the tranny foam insulation? I've never seen it in the
AIM.

If you're referring to the lizzardcool stuff, Ceramic does not transfer heat very well. They have a demo showing a hotplate coated with the stuff and one without both with an icecube placed on top. The coated hotplate has a fairly intact cube while the other has a puddle of water.

Ceramic is an excellent barrier to prevent absorption of heat by radiation which is what happens by the hot manifold being in such close proximity to the heater/air conditioner box. There are some roofing materials that are composed of some % of ceramic to help prevent solar radiation from heating up the structure.

Bill

It may be this :


http://www.thermotec.com/products/full/13500/13500.html
This is strickly for heat.....my 78 has a foam collar (barrier) glued to top of belhousing/tunnel.
Rich

Hmmm,

Ecklers says there was no tunnel insulation for 78-82 vettes.
But they will sell a insulation pad (dynamat?) for $45 for
the interior (under the plate).

Too bad its not on the outside.

Ecklers also shows the tunnel foam heat seal for 69-79 vettes,
but non, again, for 80-82's.

Was there a cooling problems for the tranny with the foam seal in place?
Would one be okay for an 81 ?

:iagree: Best way to find a heat source or hole.............

OK, checked the vent in the pass side kick panel, it opens and closes properly, the rubber seal on it however leaves a lot to be desired. There were definitlely a few bare spots. However since this is open when the a/c is I dont figire thats my problem. I removed the screen on the pass side wiper compartment area and vucuumed out everything real good. When the a/c goes on the door in that area closes however there is a small gap, maybe the size of your pinky finger where I assume hot air could get through. Any ideas on how to seal that? Hood seal is good.
Also is there any direct correlation to engine compartment heat and a/c cooling properly. It seems that when I first start my car the a/c blows nice and cold but as the car heats up my a/c gets warmer. My engine will get as hot as 210 deg, another issue I'm workin on. I even went as far as ordering the $60.00 glass top shielding insert from Mid America to keep the sun from cooking the compartment and it helped but only a little.

Thx, ESU.

Hey just wanted to update everyone on some issues that I found with my car. Sorry it took so long, I was in Bowling Green last week checking out the new 'vettes being assembled!

I took the recommendation and got one of those IR guns to check temperatures...that thing is great.

After a long drive (and while driving), I found out that I had 120 degrees flowing out of my vents! I disconnected the heater hoses last month, so where's that heat coming from???

I also shot the heater box plenum from the inside of the car under the right-side dash. I got 150 degrees!!! That thing was hot! I shot the passenger side vent and it was roughly the same as the rest of the interior, so I don't thing it's leaking.

I did also notice about a 10 degree higher temp along parts of the tunnel, but I wasn't too concerned about those.

Any thoughts on the heater box???

Has anybody insulated the a/c -heater box form the outside? What did you use?

I recall someone did with the heat refecting self adhesive material...I would not use any combo heat/noise stuff though. Think I'll try it along with exterior footwells....look at Thermo Tec

high temp debug
 

Like everyone else I am plagued with high temps in the cabin area. I checked the hood seal - the seal itself was good but it was "hanging" from the hood and not properly fixed in place. I have that corrected, and the seal is tight to the mating surface. Hopefully this will help, I plan on checking the passenger vent also. Not sure what to look for here but based on the earlier posts a bad seal located somewhere near the vent????? Or upstream of the vent.

I like the idea of the ball valve preventing hot coolant to flow to the heater core. I am going to implement this.
I will take some pictures - I think it would help explain things on the thread.