curtis
Well-known member
So I scored this at a local junkyard and the end tanks were damaged as well as the flat piece of aluminum that the mounts are welded to on the bottom. Its nothing special and a Chinese 50 dollar ebay special. Even fixed isn't worth messing with to sell because there so cheap new but it was free so I got to work. I had the angled endtanks from a 18 wheeler core I cut up years ago. They ended up working perfectly for the project but one huge problem. There for 3.5 inch IC pipes on the truck. Damn thats alot of airflow but I'll need it for what this will do. I got it plumbed and works like a champ. Your all thinking damn ain't you a JSB....Could it be Curtis is actually turning wrenches on the car....Did Hell just freezee.....NOPE
From the pictures above you see a small blower fan that will be hooked to a duct work system to be built in the next few days when I get a chance. I though of this years ago but in the summer don't need it and it gets put off then in the winter just bitch that its cold and put it off then. I'm sick of being cold so I did it. On the left side you'll notice a square box. This has a small thermostat from an attic fan inside and is sealed with RTV so if I ever need to get in there. Last winter I measure the temp inside the exhaust blower duct at the furnace and it measure 278F and outside at the chinamans cap was 134F on a 34 degree day. Thats alot of energy wasted I could have been useing years ago. My shop and office downstairs usually stays about 61 to 62 degrees when its cold out. This is at chest level and floor temps are cold and my feet hurt If I standing still at the mill or at the work bench. All morning the shop was 61 after a few hours of tig welding that went up to about 64/65 but with opening the garage door a few times about 5pm it dropped down to the 57 to 58 range. I ran to lowes got some aluminum tape and hooked it up about 7:30 or so. I just checked and the shop is 65 to 66 . The multimeter is just bouncing back and forth. As you can see the hot side of the meter is sitting on 158 surface temp. This is with the furnace on and maxed out at 158, This is with the upstairs thermostat set at 70. I'm sure if I went up and cranked the thing to 75 it would go above that on the core. Now on the cold side its averages around 112 surface temp. That's a 46 degree difference and doesn't have the fan on or even hooked up yet so this 25 lbs chunk of aluminum is pulling out 46 degrees and my shop temp went up 4 degrees already.
I'll update this with new data after the fan is working. I would go ahead and do it tonight but I need to move the light fixture 180 degrees and mount a piece of plywood to the ceiling joists for the fan to mount to.
Now why did I put this is general discussions.......Because this keeps my car warm. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif And figured there's more than just me with a gas furnace. The IC isn't a restriction and you can usually find bigger 18 wheeler cores at metal recyclers for about 50 to 100 bucks if you want to go huge. Since this so far only cost me two elbows and some welding rod, gas and electricity I consider it a 100 dollar project. Hopefully my gas and water bill drops next month to prove to my wife it was worth it. Really doesn't matter to me as long as it gets warmer down here.
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