[alfa] Re: GTV-6 heater valve

[Ray Cordova <cordovar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe, et al.,
I may be a bit late on this, but I didn't see a follow-up in the digest with 
this information.

> I think the heater valve in my GTV-6 may be leaking. What's the 
> current wisdom regarding that part? 


Some time ago some digest members provided the following regarding GTV 6 heater 
valves.  My valve was (and still is) fine, but I figured some day I might need 
these, so I squirelled them away for later referrence.

-Ray
'84 GTV 6
San Diego

-----------------

Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1999 12:02:17 -0500 
From: "Sedon, Doug (OD)" <sedond@domain.elided>
Subject: heater control walve found for gtwe6 (and warious alfettas, spide rs, & 
montreal)!!!

hi all,

i finally got a heater control valve installed in my '86 gtwe6 that does not
leak!!!  no, it is NOT an alfa part.  after much research, i determined that the
closest match i was going to find was a heater walve from a '79-'82 mazda 626.
well, this thing works well w/only minor mods:

- -the center-to-center mounting holes are ~1/16" bigger.  this was successfully
remedied by drilling the mounting holes out w/a 1/4" bit - still small enuff
holes for the stock nuts/bolts to be used.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
what i MEANT was the center-to-center dimension between the mounting holes is
~1/16" longer on the mazda heater walve - drilling out the holes allows you to
fit the bolts closer together.

- -there is no recess in the mazda walve mount for a rubber o-ring-type gasket.  
a
careful application of rtv copper assured a good leak-free installation.  

- -when mounted to the heater core, the inlet for the coolant hose of the 
factory
walve faces the fire-wall of the car, the mazda walve faces the floor.  at the
wery least, you need to fit longer hose, but i found the kink in the hose at the
valve, due to tite spacing, was not to my liking.  so, i fabricated a copper "u"
tube outta flexible 1/2" copper pipe - the trick is to use a pipe-bender to
achieve the titest possible radius.  hook one end to a short piece of hose to
the walve, the other end to the hose that goes to the engine.

- -the cable operating the walve has to be cut, as the attachment point of the
cable is in a different location.

- -when i hooked up the cable w/the heater control to the "off" position on the
dash, the dash knob now only travels half-way to fully open the walve - the
mazda walve has a shorter arm-travel-motion.  not a problem, but mite offend
someone's aesthetic sensibilities.

- -there is no provision to mount the micro-switch for the 2nd tropicaire fan, 
if
your car is so equipped.  i was able to mount the micro-switch
w/industrial-strength double-stick tape to a ~1/2" thick shim, w/the shim
double-stick-taped to the side of the hvac center-housing, so the mazda arm
actuates the switch as required.  this was actually wery easy - it took only
about 15 minutes to figure out that 1/2" was the proper shim-size needed, and
where it needed to be mounted to ensure proper activation.

as i haven't seen the configurations of the spiders, alfettas, montreals, etc
that the alfa part is used for, i dunno if the conwersion would be as easy, but
it's worth a shot, when you can only get gnu leaky walves from the factory.
this mazda walve also mite  work where the rite-angle walve is called for, cuz,
from what i can tell, the inlets on these will point down to the floor when
installed anyways.

back on the road w/a heated, leak-free gtwe6!  :>)

---------- 2nd one on heater valve ------------------------

Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2004 07:22:48 -0500
From: "Jay T Hinton" <jhinton@domain.elided>
Subject: [alfa] GTV6 heater valve

Its possible to fit a Fiat 128 heater valve.  This will require a bit of
work,  and the valve's pipes are a slightly different diameter,  but its
still not hard to do and works well.  Be sure to purchase the Fiat
rubber gasket that goes with it.  Oh,  this heater valve is made of
metal, not plastic.

I believe DiFatta has them,  perhaps IAP does as well.  I think I paid
something like 17 dollars a year ago.

Ciao,  Jay
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