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Based on william's suggestion that leaves & stuph may have gotten into the fresh air intake, I disconnected the black plastic connecting duct between the intake box and the heater, on the intake box side, and felt around in both the duct and the box. Both were quite clean, no leaves etc. Then I noticed that even with the selector on the dash heater controls all the way over to interior air, the flapper on the intake box was still about 1/3 open! So I have always been getting fresh, cold air, even when I didn't want it. No wonder the car would only get lukewarm in the winter!
Originally I had thought my problem stemmed from the 180 degree thermostat Greg installed as an overheating precaution when he turboed the car, and just lived with it, doing the usual things like blocking bumper and grill openings. It now has a 195 degree thermostat, and I was puzzled that my heat was no better.
I pulled the box out, and inspected how the door was attached to the box; it looked pretty flimsy. I suspect that many Festys have this issue. So I left it off, and then pulled the squarish inspection panel off the pass. side upper firewall in the engine bay. I stuck a plastic bag over the intake and zip-tied it on (my other option was to duct-tape the opening).
Turned the car on, warmed up the motor. Boom, instant heat!
Now that I have the intake box off, I'm gonna try to come up with an extension for the mechanism to make the flapper door close all the way. I'm thinking a 2" flat bracket will do it.
To remove the fresh air intake box:
1. remove the glove box--two phillips screws
2. pull out the little connector tab thingy that connects the box to the black plastic ducting
3. remove two 10mm nuts holding the box on; remove the cable from the box, and pull it out
Takes about 1.5 minutes to do all this.
The intake has a grill over it with large holes, so I can see how stuff could get in the system. It is easy to improve on this--get some screen-door material and zip-tie it over the grill opening, so only dust can get in. A simple fix; not as good as a cabin air filter, but easy, cheap and permanent.
Originally I had thought my problem stemmed from the 180 degree thermostat Greg installed as an overheating precaution when he turboed the car, and just lived with it, doing the usual things like blocking bumper and grill openings. It now has a 195 degree thermostat, and I was puzzled that my heat was no better.
I pulled the box out, and inspected how the door was attached to the box; it looked pretty flimsy. I suspect that many Festys have this issue. So I left it off, and then pulled the squarish inspection panel off the pass. side upper firewall in the engine bay. I stuck a plastic bag over the intake and zip-tied it on (my other option was to duct-tape the opening).
Turned the car on, warmed up the motor. Boom, instant heat!
Now that I have the intake box off, I'm gonna try to come up with an extension for the mechanism to make the flapper door close all the way. I'm thinking a 2" flat bracket will do it.
To remove the fresh air intake box:
1. remove the glove box--two phillips screws
2. pull out the little connector tab thingy that connects the box to the black plastic ducting
3. remove two 10mm nuts holding the box on; remove the cable from the box, and pull it out
Takes about 1.5 minutes to do all this.
The intake has a grill over it with large holes, so I can see how stuff could get in the system. It is easy to improve on this--get some screen-door material and zip-tie it over the grill opening, so only dust can get in. A simple fix; not as good as a cabin air filter, but easy, cheap and permanent.
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