After a hour or so of driving the floor gets really hot in my car.
Do you think this could be caused by the exhuast running
underneath the car? If so should I cover with heat tape?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Todd

Todd
There is all kinds of things you can do... the one I'd recommend is buying a heat barrier that goes underneath your carpet. You can buy it from any one of the major Corvette parts dealers, and recently, 82dukman showed me some "cut-to-fit" that you can buy from JCWhitney.

I'm going to be doing this to mine sometime next year... let us know what you wind up doing, and how it turns out!

Like Adam said, I showed him in the J.C. Whitney catalog the heat barrier. One roll was enough to do under my seats, firewall area, and rear compartment. It is only like $25. just a suggestion, and you can cut it with a scissors. It has the reflective foil side and the jute padded side too.

I am not sure of the later models but my '69 has heat barriers mounted on the frame. While you are down there looking for them, make sure your insullator is between your trans and the trans tunnel. I have side pipes and the floor and entire cockpit area gets extremely hot so don't feel like the lone ranger. ( my '74 was the same way and it had side pipes also )

I got an idea! I've got those plastic foot buckets, you know, the kind to catch all the little rocks and mud and stuff so it doesn't get into your carpet...fill them with ICE!

Hot floors is just a natural fact.

You can try insulations as mentioned and they will help, but the floor will always be hot.

Now I haven't tried the ice thing, but sounds like it would work, for awhile anyway.

I've put the reflective insulation throughout the entire inside compartment, all the way up the firewall. Didn't help much. I did a pretty meticulous job of it too, took a long time. I also noted that when I bought a weather stripping kit a while back that a piece came in the kit that was supposed to mount at the rear of the engine compartment at the top of the firewall to seal off engine heat from entering the wiper well cavity (I guess) which is where the fresh air intake is located. I decided to install that piece finally after carrying it around for 2 years. Well, it didn't have any significant impact on the heat problem either.

I'm noticing that I get a fair amount of heat out the vents even when they are shut off. I'm wondering if maybe the major source of heat is heated air entering the vent system due to a poorly designed fresh air vent system. If we could somehow duct genuine outside air into the vent intake, rather than from the wiper well, I think it would help a lot.

Any of this make sense?

dr

|QUOTE|DavidR said: I've put the reflective insulation throughout the entire inside compartment, all the way up the firewall. Didn't help much. I did a pretty meticulous job of it too, took a long time. I also noted that when I bought a weather stripping kit a while back that a piece came in the kit that was supposed to mount at the rear of the engine compartment at the top of the firewall to seal off engine heat from entering the wiper well cavity (I guess) which is where the fresh air intake is located. I decided to install that piece finally after carrying it around for 2 years. Well, it didn't have any significant impact on the heat problem either.

I'm noticing that I get a fair amount of heat out the vents even when they are shut off. I'm wondering if maybe the major source of heat is heated air entering the vent system due to a poorly designed fresh air vent system. If we could somehow duct genuine outside air into the vent intake, rather than from the wiper well, I think it would help a lot.

Any of this make sense?

dr|/QUOTE|

A cluple of months ago, I blew a heater hose, so I decided to try something. I rerouted the water from the top port of the heater hose routing to the bottom port. Basicly, I just looped the hot water back to the water pump. You would be surprised the difference inside the vette. I am figuring on fixing it right sometime, but it is really cool inside now. I'm going to wait for cold weather to change it now.

I'm going to try to find some small valves, to put in the hose routing, so I can do this just by turning the valves. The vacuum unit furnished by GM sure isn't doing the job!!!

Dave, you are right. If you have the time and Patience you could rebuild the heater box in the engine compartment. By rebuild, I mean replace all of the seals around the "fresh air box". Obviously the seals dry out over time and then you get gaps in it. This is where you get hot air from the engine coming in. Dr. Rebuild sells seal replacment kits if you waould want to go this route.

I am running a modified 400 small block in my 80 vette and the heat was really bad. I used the J.C. Whitney heat shield (It helped a little) and also put a valve in the heater hose that I purchased at Lowes. It work great and there is no hot water going through the heater core. I can open it in the winter and the heater operates fine. Every Little bit helps.

George