Alternate defrosting for a 914?

[jzglinicki]

Looking through the Pennsylvania vehicle code, we're required to maintain working defrosters for street-driven vehicles in this state. Unfortunately, every performance-oriented exhaust I've seen has no heater boxes.

Does anyone have suggestions for alternatives, either a good exhaust with heater boxes (that would still support 150 hp or more) or a different type of defroster?

I think the old VWs used some kind of a heater that sat in the front trunk and used fuel from the gas tank, but I know nothing about them. Anyone know anything about them and have any suggestions on whether such a thing might be fitted easily to a 914?

Thanks!
Joe

[TheGreenMachine]

My 914 is a daily driver, unless it's really snowing outside.

Here is the heater I'm installing this fall to keep me warm on my comute.

http://www.espar.com/

Haven't quite figured out where it's going to go yet, hopefully in the trunk, then hooked up to the blower motor.

Then, say good-by to the heat-exchangers and hello to tangerine header

[Dave_Darling]

If you simply want something to satisfy the inspectors, there are electric heaters available. You can hook them up in the front trunk, running ducts to the ventilation system behind the fuel tank. Or you can hook them up in the engine bay and run ducts to the stock heating ducts that run through the longitudinals. They won't heat the car up very well, but they are a form of heat and hopefully will satisfy the inspectors.

Setting up a gas heater in a 914 is a non-trivial problem. Looks like quite a bit of fab work to me. Lots of fun if you're into that, though!

Depending on the exact headers used, you can purchase heat exchanger-type shells to wrap around the header pipes. Most aircraft supply catalogs will have this type of item--but not all headers have a good place to put it.

You can also work up something with an extra oil cooler. The best-sounding setups I have heard discussed on that mount the cooler in the engine bay and use the stock ducting to get the warm air into the ****pit. These will take a good while to produce warm air, though! But they may be good enough for inspection.

There has also been some talk on the Shoptalk Forums about wrapping copper tubing around the header, and running water through that (using an electric pump) and fitting a standard heater core somewhere.

--DD