Time For A Heater

My 69 CJ5 doesnt have any of the factory heater assembly... no controls or anything. I've seen people use the summit universal heaters and I'm just looking for some advice, experiences of others that have done this. Should I run a duct for defrost, a way to pull in outside air, etc. My CJ5 has a softtop so I want to do a good working heater that really kicks out some heat. I'm running a 383 Vortec motor and a 190 thermostat so I should be good there.

Thank you

 

My Jeep came originally (to me) with an aftermarket heater that mounted in the center of the dash. It put out minimal heat and the defroster duct openings were worthless. I used to work in a Bronco specialty shop and had access to a pile of early Bronco heater boxes. I installed one in my 71 and fit perfectly under the passenger side dash. Installed it looked much like a heater from a 72 and later CJ. It provided not only heat but good defrosters as well. I installed the Bronco controls also, however, any universal cable and switch setup will work.

They are a bit spendy now, but are available from such places as Toms Bronco parts and Jeff's Bronco graveyard and are pretty simple to install.

 

The stock heater is pretty anemic and doesn't recirculate. It has a baffle to nowhere that just shuts off the cold fresh air. Stock is also a 7amp motor. I made a baffle for recirculating and changed to a 15amp blower.
it's a lot easier to put a Mojave heater in and call it done. There are also aftermarket a/c makers that have heat only kits.
Go for a good flowing defrost. I wouldn't worry about outside air.

 

My jeep had something that looked like this in when I bought it. I replaced with the same just due to laziness. Located on driver's side.
Works good for texas, but is very loud. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-991101-1
Also, the mud daubers like to build nests inside if you don't close the little doors.

 

I used a Summit heater. Ran one of the 3 inch runs to a outlet under the dash to a outlet to dump heat at your feet. Ran the other 3 inch run into the Jeep duct work, can use the Jeep heater control to use defrosters or dump heat to your feet. Tucked the fan control switch under the dash.

 

I've put Vintage Air Gen II heaters in both my RZR and the 3B. They work well and are really compact. The all servo controls are a lot easier to locate also. The only caveat is there is no provision for outside air intake-recirculate only. On my 3B, the top of defrost outlets are about even with the bottom of the dash but there was sufficient room to run the two 2" hoses in an "S" to plumb into my duct (backside of dash) to the windshield. You can feel a pretty decent breeze coming out of the defrost louvers. I measured the blower amp draw at high speed and it was about 12.5-13 amps. I also made a plenum for the heat side so I could route it horizontal with louvers for both the passenger and driver's foot well.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/...MI9pODw_Df6wIVx8DACh11bgOpEAYYBCABEgJAA_D_BwE

The foot well louver's are posted in my build thread also.

Just getting that project finished up.