Heater box clearance issue..

[Mattyp77]

I put a big block olds 425 in my 87 cutlass where a 307 used to be. For the most part it was a very simple straight forward swap. Couldn't have asked for a better first ever motor swap. But anyway one place that was a little tight was the right side valve cover and the ac/heater box on the firewall. Although it did fit without actually touching i did end up having to put in new pushrods and i was only able to get those rear ones out by cutting a hole in that box. It seams like the only thing i actually cut was an outer shell, no internal components. My question is will this cause the heating system to not work right? Do i need to find a way to patch that back up? I don't care about the ac i don't plan to set that up anytime soon. But i do care about the heat. Thanks

 

[pontiacgp]

if you leave it open you'll allow heat and fumes from the engine bay into the car

 

[565bbchevy]

If there is room you could probably make a small patch out of thin aluminum and use a 90 degree drill and drill holes to either rivet it or put Nutzerts in place for future removal or even screws, use a sealer first and paint it black when you are done.
Also take the valve cover off for extra working room and cover the engine.

 

[Texas82GP]

Gbodyparts sells a kit to convert an A/C case to a non A/C case. You could PM this member and ask him about it. Here is his build thread....
https://gbodyforum.com/threads/my-83-monte-carlo-ss-carb-ls-build.61484/
Here is his thread on the heater box conversion....
https://gbodyforum.com/threads/does...o-do-the-a-c-box-to-non-a-c-heater-box.61604/

 

[Mattyp77]

Sounds good. Thanks guys

 

[565bbchevy]

I personally would want to keep the option of retaining AC and it would not take much to make it fit on a 425 Olds since you had a 307.