Question about heater boxes in our trucks.

[CSoliz]

I have a '66 with the heater box in the engine compartment. I have noticed on a couple of '63's that the heater box is not in the engine compartment, it has the coolant lines running in to the cab. Now my question is, is the heater box in the cab in the earlier trucks? If so, can us heater box in the engine compartment guys some how move it in to the cab? Or was the heater box just deleted? Some comparison pics.


Thanks.


My '66:


A '63:

[Phildooney]

May be the heater on the earlier models was an added option? Be interested to find out.

[83burban]

Heater under the hood was a deluxe heater I believe. I think it was an option for all years. I took mine out and am not running a heater - so-cal weather

[CSoliz]

Maybe, but why would they run the coolant lines inside the cab if they don't have the option? Here is another pic courtesy of Chief Rocka:

[CSoliz]

Originally Posted by 62c20

Heater under the hood was a deluxe heater I believe. I think it was an option for all years. I took mine out and am not running a heater - so-cal weather

I was thinking of doing the same thing. I love Chief Rocka's clean engine.

[joe231]

if you get after-market a/c, it moves the heater inside the cab, plus as a bonus you have cold air and better defrost

[Anthony Fremont]

Originally Posted by CSoliz

I was thinking of doing the same thing. I love Chief Rocka's clean engine.

Me too; it's amazing, but I gotta wonder why he didn't clip the excess off the tie-straps.

[Rogue 64]

My '64 had the underhood heater but it was not deluxe.
My grandfathers '63 had an underdash accessory heater.

[TimE]

I have 3 60-66 trucks. One has the Standard heater and the other two have Deluxe. Underhood, all three are identical to the first pic. The difference is in the controls and the inside box under the dash. I parted out a '63 a while back with the standard heater. It looked identical to the second pic. The heater box was a self contained unit mounted under the dash on the firewall. The blower motor and heater core are all inside the cab. It was probably moved out of the cab due to noise and eventual coolant leakage in the cab. Also, I'm not sure, but I believe the Deluxe Heater in the earlier years was like the underhood setup on the 64-66. Can someone that knows a little more about the 60-63's confirm this?

[ChiefRocka]

Originally Posted by CSoliz

I was thinking of doing the same thing. I love Chief Rocka's clean engine.

Thanks man....

Originally Posted by Anthony Fremont

Me too; it's amazing, but I gotta wonder why he didn't clip the excess off the tie-straps.

Hey...those were just mock up tie-straps, man !!....THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!!

I think I went with red ones with a little less tail on them

My truck has the "standard" heater...which works great. It only has two levers...fan and the toggle between defrost and floor. The panel has the four slots, which the unused two are blocked from the rear. One cool idea to do would be to custom make some controls/levers to utililize all four lever to work with a classic or Vintage air system...that would be cool !!!

Always wondered what those block off plates were for....kinda like it that way.

Later

[Captainfab]

The '60-'63 trucks had two different heater options. The recirculatiing (standard) heater had the heater core and the fan motor inside the cab under the dash, and two control levers....like the one in the second pic and in the Chief's truck. This was normally the heater ordered if the truck was going to areas where it didn't get too cold. Since this heater didn't draw outside air it would tend to fog up the windows really bad in colder climates (ask me how I know)

The deluxe heater has the heater core and the fan motor in the engine compartment, drew air from the cowl and had four control levers as in the first pic. This is the one ordered for the colder climates (ice and snow) since it does a superior job of defrosting.

The '64-'66 trucks had the same heater options plus a third option called the economy heater. This was basically the same as the deluxe heater except for the controls. Instead of the four levers it utilized a single cable that you pushed or puller and also turned the knob for control of the heater. There is also two different size heater cores available for the deluxe heater. I'm not positive but I think it may have been the difference between the deluxe and the economy heater.

All this is correct to the best of my knowledge. If anyone has different info. please post

[rickf]

Besides the smaller heater core that CaptainFab mentions, the Economy heater doesn't have a hot-water circulation shut-off valve, which I believe the Deluxe and Recirculating heater setups both have.

So the only shut-off for the Econo heater is the flapper that stops the air flow. Since this is in the box that is inside the cab, and since it isn't 100% effective, the box always gets warm and the cab is always heating at least a little.