The mapper was booked up solid for a while but I'm booked in for May 14th, I've done about 1200 miles now and given it an oil change and it's all going very well. As I do I got bored with nothing to do so thought I'd work on the heating system.
A problem I had on a previous kit car was that the heating system was ducted so efficiently with the intake in a high pressure zone that I would always get warm air coming through the system into the car. I couldn't have the fans on with ambiant temperature air as the heater matrix was part of the thermostat bypass flow. This was a particular problem during some heavy summer rain where I needed a good amount of air flow to keep the screens de-misted and my only option was hot heated air which turned the interior into a steam room! The solution is to fit a valve which can bypass the matrix but still enable constant flow, handily Ford fit one to many of their small cars so I bought one.
The valve could be connected up to an on/off switch but a better solution (as well as how it is used in Fords) is to use a low frequency PWM controller, this gives proper temperature control by cycling the valve on and off depending on demand of a rotary switch which I have fitted in the glovebox. Mine came from ebay as a generic part but was modified by the seller to reduce the frequency to something more suitable. The valve connector was a generic mini timer type that was also from ebay.
Finally getting around to fitting the valve in the car after cutting off superfluous brackets, a quick test of the electrics to make sure it was fitted the correct way around and it's in!
A test in the car and I'm extremely happy with how it works, the temperature is easily adjusted and changes surprisingly quickly.