#1 S3 blower upgrade
Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 12:11 pm
Hi All,
Just finished my pontiac blower upgrade on my s3, so thought i d share some things i found and a couple of pictures.
First problem i had is that it needed a new mesh, SNG wanted ?13 for it, i found 15cm squares of it on ebay for ?1 - i bought a smaller mesh size, to try to eliminate bits flying into the car, you car get the standard size. however i am aiming for practicality rather than a concours finish. (doesnt appear to affect throughput either)
The second problem i had is that the mesh is welded onto a plate with some sort of metal bonding agent. (the s1-2 had a screw down plate i think that could be removed to change the mesh - why they changed this is a mystery) Anyway i did not have any metal bonding agent to hand, so went down the pop rivet route instead, before you say they are not aligned, not my fault. the bonding plate has predrilled holes, but they are not straight either :)
The next thing i did was to rebuild the box, and used some of the old foam which was still in good order, but cut some new pieces too. i also installed the pontiac fan but cutting a larger diameter hole, and also pop riveted the fan in place, drilling holes in the base of the fan case for all available holes on the fan and riveting in - (this was a slow process, making sure the fan didnt catch as its a close fit between the fan spinning freely, and there being enough metal to attach the rivets. Similar to Heuer's model, i attached the 1r50 resistor onto the bottom of the case to act as a heat sink.
Once everything was installed, i was concerned about how the flap stops against the sides of the new heater matrix, although a satisfied clunk noise when engaged, i was looking at the longevity of both the matrix and the box. As you can see in the image below i attached a rubber grommet to one side of the flap, which takes the pressure out of the contact between plate and matrix.
it looks a bit crude, but does the job really well. All new parts were bought from SNG apart from the mesh/fan/resistor which were from ebay. SNG didnt have the seal kit in stock so think about reuse and making your own too, i used speaker foam if u pull apart old speakers most of them have foam insulation which can be cut to size.
Just finished my pontiac blower upgrade on my s3, so thought i d share some things i found and a couple of pictures.
First problem i had is that it needed a new mesh, SNG wanted ?13 for it, i found 15cm squares of it on ebay for ?1 - i bought a smaller mesh size, to try to eliminate bits flying into the car, you car get the standard size. however i am aiming for practicality rather than a concours finish. (doesnt appear to affect throughput either)
The second problem i had is that the mesh is welded onto a plate with some sort of metal bonding agent. (the s1-2 had a screw down plate i think that could be removed to change the mesh - why they changed this is a mystery) Anyway i did not have any metal bonding agent to hand, so went down the pop rivet route instead, before you say they are not aligned, not my fault. the bonding plate has predrilled holes, but they are not straight either :)
The next thing i did was to rebuild the box, and used some of the old foam which was still in good order, but cut some new pieces too. i also installed the pontiac fan but cutting a larger diameter hole, and also pop riveted the fan in place, drilling holes in the base of the fan case for all available holes on the fan and riveting in - (this was a slow process, making sure the fan didnt catch as its a close fit between the fan spinning freely, and there being enough metal to attach the rivets. Similar to Heuer's model, i attached the 1r50 resistor onto the bottom of the case to act as a heat sink.
Once everything was installed, i was concerned about how the flap stops against the sides of the new heater matrix, although a satisfied clunk noise when engaged, i was looking at the longevity of both the matrix and the box. As you can see in the image below i attached a rubber grommet to one side of the flap, which takes the pressure out of the contact between plate and matrix.
it looks a bit crude, but does the job really well. All new parts were bought from SNG apart from the mesh/fan/resistor which were from ebay. SNG didnt have the seal kit in stock so think about reuse and making your own too, i used speaker foam if u pull apart old speakers most of them have foam insulation which can be cut to size.