Honda Civic Heater Blower Motor upgrade for 240z's--My personal take

[dogma420]

Howdy everybody...

I just finished with the Honda blower motor upgrade for my 72 240z. I have got to tell you, this would be the best upgrade ever for my Z if it wasn't for Dave's Headlight relay harness upgrade.

I'm telling you...on the setting low (the first setting from off) the output is just about equal to what it used to be on full. Yes, it's that good.

I did it primarily for 2 reasons:

1. The stock heater fan's output reminds me of an early 70's Japanese car (duh)...in other words, this heater motor's output is very low in comparison to anything in modern times.

2. I plan on installing a new R134a A/C system this June..so I wanted to possibly get higher fan output if at all possible.

What I did was order a 88-91 Honda Civic Motor from this Link:

http://www.drivewire.com/hondaparts/catalog/hondacivicheaterblowermotor.html

I figured a new one for $85.40 ? Sounds good to me...(any of the motors at the bottom for any of the 88-91 civics work, they are all the same model)...

The problem was, and I'm to blame, is that it didn't come with a fan blade! Even the picture doesn't show it having one. The Honda one is plastic, much lighter than the 240z metal one, and after over 3 hours of fabrication tries, I came to the conclusion that the stock 240z metal fan blade can't be mounted to this Honda fan without major mods to the motor's bolt that the fan blade would mount to. [i'M NOT SAYING that someone else here couldn't figure it out--I gave up at the 3 hour mark--seems that the spacing is too deep when I got the fan installed--the bolt through the motor would have to be removed and have the indentation on the end of the Honda motor machined down lower on the bolt to make it work--just wasn't worth it, because at that point, the 3 hour mark, I remembered this.....]

Auto Adventure in Portland, Oregon

Link: http://www.partsadventure.com/

Growing up, I must of had 10 Honda Accords and Civics...and I used to buy parts all the time from Auto Adventure.

This is a smaller warehouse in the middle of Portland that houses just about every stock part imagineable for any Honda from 1988 to present (used to be from 1976 to present in the day...)

The great thing is, all parts are already disassembed and have been stored since they were removed from a salvage car in a temperature controlled environment. Auto Adventure (owned by Speed's towing) purchases wrecked and whatever else Hondas and then disassembles and does whatever. So....

I called them up, "do you have the plastic fan blade for a 88-91 Honda Civic heater motor?"

"yeah, $50"

So, now I'm in this project for $85 + 50...jeeze...anyways...

I go down there and for $50 I get the entire heating housing, motor, fan, the entire heating guts from under the dash from a civic. They force you to take it all so they have more space.

You could probably get them to ship to anywhere in the US, not sure, but if you can't find the parts,....I'd call them.

So here's what I did, and what parts I used:

1. New motor from first link

2. Used white plastic fan blade from used motor I got from Auto Adventure

3. Round rubber gasket that goes around outside of housing from used assembly I got at Auto Adventure (THIS was very useful, I think I would've needed this and/or created something--my 35 year old 240z fan gasket was too worn out to be resued IMO).

4. 2 wire crimper thingies, tube with insulation on the outside that you stick 2 ends of wires into each end, and then vice grip the connector tightly closed to complete a circuit.

Just put the whole assembly together as you would think it would go. Observations:

1. I tested the new motor with the plastic fan to ensure it was going to rotate the correct way (if wrong, the air output wouldn't be very strong)...when positive (red) from new Honda motor was connected to the postive (red) of the 240Z wiring harness (and both negatives attached) I found that POLARITY IS CORRECT, THAT THE FAN ROTATES THE CORRECT WAY WITHOUT SWITCHING POLARITY. All I did was check what rotation was on original fan motor in relation to the 240z fan blade's curvature)

2. The Honda motor (both the new one and used one) came with a vent hole on the motor, that would have a 'snorkel' that leads to the air housing where the fan blade is moving. My guess is this is to wisk away moisture and keep the motor more dust free than if it was just sealed (like the 240z motor)...not sure what would be better, plugged or vented...I chose to just keep it open, the opening sits on top of the motor and I doubt anything would get in there in the future...I think this would be better than if the vent was capped with a rubber emission type cap...

3. The gasket from the used motor I purchased that goes around the outside was very important in sealing the whole fan in its base. Make sure that you seal it in some way.

4. The 3 washer/rubber gaskets that the housing screws go through need to be modified. The oem Honda fan housing just has knobs in the plastic that the fan sort of snap into (like 2 legos) and then use large washers. What I did was remove the 3 washer/rubber thingies from the 240z motor, and I cut the inside rubber portion off, and removed the 'tube' of metal that the screw went through. What was left was the outside washer, attached to the outside portion of rubber--IMO the best way to mount the heater.

5. The glove box should definitely be removed so you don't damage/scrape the bottom of the glove box as you remove the fan (it would be very easy to damage your glove box). The wire leads from the 240z harness are VERY short (at least on my 10/71 Z) and reconnecting them would be very difficult without removing the glove box.

6. This FAN KICKS TOTAL butt! I highly recommend this upgrade. It's right up there with the headlight harnesses as far as making our 240's feel more like one of our other newer cars. The output is incredibly high on wind, but it isn't any louder, in fact, the motor is quieter at its highest output...the air rushing sound though, is actually louder than the stock 240z fan, which isn't surprising. Although it does not look 100% original, on anything but a low vin 70 car, it's barely noticeable that the fan has been replaced.

7. I would recommend just getting the used assembly from Auto Adventure...But at least I now have an extra Honda motor for future failures if necessary. After seeing/feeling the fan output, I don't feel bad at all about spending $135 on this upgrade...using my Z as a daily driver at times, it's nice to have a good fan on a cold Winter morning, or that one or two weeks of 80+ temps we have here in the Northwest USA.

Any questions, PM me...

By the way, I thought about doing pictures and/or putting this in the tech how to article area, but it's just too easy and short, I decided against it...am I correct?

Have a great rest of your week everyone,

[Kimi]

This was great information :cheeky:

I will definitly use this someday when I'm upgrading the heater blower motor in my 240z.

[gogriz91]

Outstanding, I've got one of the Honda fans sitting in the garage waiting for a cold day and a bit of motivation. I've been hoping something like this would come along.

[Dtsnlvrs]

Thats alot of work and money for something I can buy from a couple of different sellers on E-bay for less than $60. And both of them include a pigtail to plug it in with. Just do a search for "Datsun Blower"

[dogma420]

Excluding the 'dinking around' trying to get the stock fan blades to mate to the new motor, total time is under an hour.

Stock 240z fans don't have pigtails....that's a Honda pigtail...even if you have a pigtail, you still have to splice the wires into the setup. 240's use 2 male/female plugs sticking out of the wiring harness only about an inch.

All references to 'honda blowers' show a silver ended fan that even if painted black, does not match the 240z motor housing (the one in the picture has this pigtail thingy plugging into the motor). The procedure I used matches the original fan, where 2 wires come out of the stock motor. Without mods, my fan looks stock...I will post pictures as soon as I find my camera.

Uh, Russell, I post this information for users that could possibly use it. It's easy to make reply's such as yours. Sometimes experience at doing a job exposes a few things that if you were to know before you started a project, it might help you. That's what I did. What did you do?

[Bambikiller240]

he provided a different perspective.

dont take it personal dogma. different strokes for different folks.

[dogma420]

Carl? Where the hell have you been? Nice seeing you type.

I don't take it personally; it's just funny seeing people comment when they've done nothing.

[a7dz]

This all sounds so, funny to me. But, thanks for the info. I too will use the one from ebay. I guess the plug on the fan motor is not going to look any more out of place then the zx alternator adapter or the relays to the headlights or the wire changes for the zx dizzy. Or the newer radio in the dash? I am just not into the AM that came in mine stock.

[Dtsnlvrs]

Dogma,

What I was trying to say, was that there are guys selling that upgrade on Ebay for about 60 bucks, with a connector for the honda motor that has the conectors spliced on it for "plug and play" use in our Z cars. Your write up was very detailed and complete, I was just pointing out that there was a cheaper and faster way to get the same result...that is to buy it complete and terminated to plug into our harness. I have purchased this exact fan for myself, and 3 other Z cars I service. I swear by it and can attest that it does move much more air than the original fan, is much quieter, and draws less current. I am not a "honda" guy so I do not know of any other year fan that works or is a different color. Are there others out there (fans) that bolt in like this and have a black motor? I would like to see one (pics please) so I can inform the rest of ZCCNV so they may glean from this knowlege.

[dogma420]

well, mine's all black; no silver. It's a Honda (but it was the aftermarket new motor I bought)...also, should be noted, that the new motor was quieter w/o fan blade attached vs. the new black one I got.

And, yes, IMO, if you're the passenger, the first thing you'd look at would be the silver motor, because it looks out of place in a completely stock interior. Easy enought to paint however.

[Walter Moore]

dogma,

Nice writeup. I really appreciate the detail. But then being an engineer I tend to want to know ALL the details before I do something.

By the way, I suspect that the "snorkel" is for cooling, but I could be wrong.

[ZIII]

Jim,

You are so right about the blower and how it plays with the rest of the stuff we modify our Z’s with.

Dogma:

Have heard great things about the Honda blowers on Ebay and I think that is all Russell was trying to say. Not to mention the significant price differential and modifying hassle.

I am considering replacing mine although here in the southwest I hardly use it and since I have no AC, and certainly no plans to go that route, a blower is not a priority. I hardly remember when I last had it on. Although I must say, when I went to the 105 amp ALT, it worked better than it ever did