Replacing the blower box with non-AC box

[natenkiki2004]

Ever since I first saw the modification being done, I wanted to do it to mine since the compressor was long ago removed. It seems my Explorer either had the AC system rebuilt or put on aftermarket at the dealer. My blower box had a WYNN sticker on it with a serial number and looked much different from the factory ones I've seen. It never had any insulation and seemed bulkier than the factory ones as well. I wanted to get rid of it since it was unbelievably cracked, melted and a waste of space.

I didn't get any pictures of the before but you can see the box in this picture:

Bulky and ugly.

I came across a donor vehicle the other day to pull parts from, it was a 1990 Ranger and luck smiled upon me as it sat right next to a 1988 Ranger and under the hood was the non-AC box.

Yesterday I decided to tackle the project. All told, I spent about 4 frustrating hours on it. 2.5 hours of that was dealing with the broken plastic and finding rusted-on nuts as well as rust on every screw holding the passenger side inner fender on. I chose not to remove the heater hoses or coil pack. Removing those would have made life easier but I was determined to get the box out.

Today, I finished putting the non-AC box in. Most of the time was spent prepping bolts/screws with anti-seize and tidying things up.

I wish I got more pictures but this is the end result:

Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try my best to answer them!

 

[94 green explore]

I did this a while ago on my 94 x. ANY non-ac blower box from a 83-97 ranger/B2 or 91-94 x will work.

 

[malohnes]

I did it too. Only i reused my converted AC to non-AC blower box. I used coroplast to build 2 walls to plug up the holes where the evaporator went. I then cut 4" round holes in both of them and connected them with insulated dryer hose. It works well, is light, and cheap.

 

[natenkiki2004]

Mark, I was seriously considering modifying mine but the one I had wasn't factory original. It seems like it was a dealer add-on kit or something. It was physically different from the factory original, had no insulation and upon removal, it was severely cracked and even melted from the exhaust manifold.

Swapping out was pretty sweet and should go easier for someone with a factory AC box.

I'm sure glad I did it, now I have to pull the motor to fix oil leaks, this will help

 

[natenkiki2004]

If anyone else is looking to do this mod, let me know. I picked up another box the other day, perfect condition without cracks. Blower motor resistor included.

 

[2stroke]

I deleted my AC, but like you I left the blower box. I mainly did it for space like you, but one unintended bonus is that it blows air a lot harder than it did before. I'd love to get a non-AC box, but I would rather not pay for it. I figured a junk yard might trade straight up my box for theirs. I'm not sure what I could trade you. I have an aftermarket air intake, but I'm not certain it will fit an explorer.

 

[natenkiki2004]

I sent you a message

 

[2stroke]

I got the blower box from natenkiki2004, and got it installed. It looks great next to my redneck painted valve covers. We'll see how long regular paint lasts on those. I love that I can now get to all my regular maintenance areas without a problem. I can now get to all 6 plugs no problem. Sorry the sun kind of dimmed the pictures. Also in the second picture you can see how I mounted the oil dipstick (other post in stock explorers).

 

[jonwillrob]

I know this is a pretty old thread, but I've been searching far and wide for a non-ac box for my 94 explorer, but apparently old rangers and bronco 2s don't exist in south Texas. I'm wondering if anyone on this forum has an extra one, or can get their hands on one?

Of course I'll gladly pay for the box and for shipping, as well as a little extra cash for your troubles.

 

[Devan]

Wakin up a rlly old thread here like the last guy cept he didnt even get a response lol. Im lookin to do something like this for space saving purposes however i wanna retain the A/C. If I ever wanted to swap in a 4.6 SOHC or perhaps even DOHC (in my dreams it would fit lol, I might be able to make it happen) im gonna have to definitely do something about the bulky ass evaporator housing and convert to a hydroboost brake booster which I don't think should be that hard because I believe the power steering pump has a second port on it but I don't know if the pump itself is strong enough although I think I've seen a couple hydroboost brake booster conversion forums for explorers and that's just two things I can think of off the top of my head real quick there's going to be other major modifications. But I had a few ideas for the blower and evaporator housing assembly. One of them was I saw some guy cut the evaporator housing up and shape and fiberglass it and perhaps put a smaller evaporator core in there something like that, my next idea was to search for a similar evaporator housing that might work or that I could fabricate to work. But so far the best idea that I've seen yet was if you go and look up Google Images and type in SVT ThunderBolt, you'll see a Ranger with a lightning swap in it. Its got the lightning 5.4 SOHC with the lightning version of the Eaton M112 supercharger. The supercharger has a custom intake plenum to accommodate the engine bay. Oh and more importantly I think it was actually built by Ford but anyways all that aside the most important point is that I saw that it had a completely different climate control system in it under the hood anyway. So I checked like four or five different articles pertaining to this vehicle and I found one article that said something like the Rangers bulky HVAC plenum was removed and replaced with a more space efficient one out of an E350. I just searched for the page here's the link:
2003 Ford Ranger V-8 - Truckin Magazine

The page was giving me a hard time loading half of the pictures so here is a link to the ranger station forum that has some better pictures where you can really see the blower and evaporator system:
Ford Ranger SVT

So in conclusion I'm just wondering if you guys had any ideas on what routes to go if i wanted to keep the AC but get rid of that bulky evaporator housing. Or if you guys know about any forum listings where the evaporator housing was replaced or modified that would be great too. But the best thing anybody could do to help me would be to tell me if they know which year E350 the blower motor and evaporator housing came out of thats in that SVT Thunderbolt. Or if anybody knows how to swap it in. I'm going to have to do some research on the Ford technician website and forums and junk yards and stuff.