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Don't cut your heater box!


whisperer

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The plastic that the heater box is made from is some kind of styrene and responds well to heat. All I did to make clearance for the valve cover was to mark the area that needed to clear, heat it up with my heat gun and push it back. It took literally 3 minutes.

The box is fairly thin material and I think a good blowdryer would have done it if necessary. I used an oil filter as the item of choice as the "push-former" and it made a nicely rounded dent that is perfectly sized to clear even my tall race valve cover on my 302. It would also have no problem clearing with a 351W with normal covers.
 


Grey_04

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whisperer, sounds like a cool deal . I'd be interested in seeing an after pic..
 

Teddyzee

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Cool!

...and remember, not necessary for '95 and later!
 

whisperer

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If you want pics I'll snap a couple tomorrow and post them up.
 

alwaysFlOoReD

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Great tip, thanks.
Richard
 

Grey_04

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dam that was a clean job, whisperer.
 

JoeyB

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I just spent a bunch of time with flashing modifying mine this weekend and it doesn't look all that good. I wish you would have posted this on Friday... Sweet tip:icon_thumby:
 

Iron Ranger

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Are you kidding me!!? :icon_surprised:

OK, this one DEFINITELY has to go into the tech library! :icon_bounceblue:

Do you have any idea how long I took fabbing a sheetmetal cover for mine!!? :annoyed:
 

SCOTTYFIREMAN

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How about if you want to leave the A/C?
Has anyone did that as you know of?
 

r1hatman

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t_dickie

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Nice job! Did you do that to a 2wd or 4wd? Would it work for a stock height, no A/C 2wd swap?
 

bobbywalter

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My credo
it is easier to fix and understand than "her"
500 watt light works too....take it off and lay it flat, light on corner till its soft. you can shape a coffee can under it and it will lay in pretty good


done this many different ways over the years, fire is bad for it. in the early 90's the guys at total performance did it with heat and big metel spoon thing dipped in oil. my current box was heat gun but i was impatient and need to do another..but i may just leave it. they do bust easier after you do it deep.


351 swaps with ac i find it easier to cut and make a metal piece with a tube to the blower feed hole

did not realize this type of info was not around anymore....
 
Last edited:

Duane867

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Why the HELL didn't I think of that when I did mine ?
 

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