Hi all, I've come upon a 1957 Olds 98 that is something of a restomod, though the previous owner didn't finish all the detail work. It is a beautiful car and my first 50's model. It has a Chevy 350 for a motor.

One thing that has me scratching my head is the heater arrangement. The heater and blower were not connected when I bought the car. I figured it was a simple thing to take care of, as I've done before with other cars. I could see the heater core tubes sticking out on the passenger side and thought nothing of it. I did notice the tubes on the passenger side actually point towards the middle of the car, which I haven't seen before (I'm used to pointing forward or down).

Upon closer inspection, I see the water pump and manifold connections that would normally go to the heater core are run to something on the driver's side. I cannot tell what this something is! It almost looks like it would be some type of secondary heat exchanger.

I'm wondering what this might be, and how the heater hoses should be routed along with the normal looking heater core on the passenger side. Thanks!

 

Better get yourself a chassis manual, it shows you how to hook up the heater and there is a small heard of vacuum lines to operate the heat and defrost...

 

Can you take pictures and post them for us?

 

I think the kicker in this situation is that the car has a chevy engine so the chassis service manual may not help. Pictures would though. Usually the heater/defroster/control valve are in series with the control valve first, so all you have to ensure is that the you have the "outie" from the water pump, I have no idea where that would be on a chevy engine.

 

The air conditioning option shows the cooling coil on the drivers side and the heater core on the passenger side of the car. Check your controls on the inside of the car and see if controls to the right of the steering wheel say air condition. It sounds like the person who modified the car relocated a heater core to this location. Strange setup. Post a picture of your engine compartment might be able to help you out

 

I've taken some pictures but am having trouble getting them to embed in my message. As soon as I've figured it out I'll post. Thanks for all the replies to date!

 

You might have to post a few more times before you can attach a picture to your posts. I think the site requires you to have 5 posts. You can always post your pictures at Flickr or another file sharing site and provide a link.

 

You can now post pictures.

 

Thanks again for all the replies. I got to the bottom of things. When I bought the car, the seller (who purchased it from the restorer) stated that the heater was not hooked up. I could see the stubs from the heater core and left it at that.

Now this is a restomod, and it has an underdash aftermarket a/c unit. It looks very nice, though I need to do a better job of dressing up the refrigerant lines coming from the passenger side.

Well it turns out that the underdash unit ALSO has heater hose connections (along with a shutoff valve). These are the lines that were puzzling me as they enter the firewall on the driver's side. I think three things were my undoing. First, I just believed it when the seller stated there was no heater. Second, I'm used to seeing underdash units in old Mustangs that are a/c only; never thought it might have heat as well. And third, I didn't dig in far enough. It was not that hard to see the aftermarket heater hoses under the dash, though they are tucked away much nicer than the refrigerant lines on the other side.

So there you have it. Here are some pics anyway. Note the shaved door handles. I really like what this does for the car, especially on the rear door. It almost makes it look like a 2-door. Now I need to get on with adding remote solenoids (which DEFINITELY are not there)...