E30 Zone

Best location for a front amp?

I bought this kenwood jobbie and was going to install it in the area under the heater controls unless there's a better place?





Cheers
Toby

Seen it done, and was going to do it with mine.....

Top of transmission tunnel, forward of ashtray, beneath dash, hidden by centre console.

That what

toby wrote:under the heater controls

you're getting at???

Quite a warm area to put an amp in imo, Not a lot of cool air passing over the amp.

In my mk2 & 3 escort days under the front seats was the way,

BTW Toby did you get the megasquirt?

d6dph wrote:Quite a warm area to put an amp in imo, Not a lot of cool air passing over the amp.

That was why I didn't do it that way.
Toby, if you're interested, I can post pics of my Touring amp install solution.

StuBeeDoo cheers, it would be good to see pics of another option.

It's the heat that concerns me. Have fitted an Alpine amp in a previous E30 in this location with no probs but it looked to have better cooling ducts than this new one.

mattG, MS is on my xmas list, but I don't think I've been good enough and Santa knows.

Nice work stu, what size are the rear speakers on the sides?

mattG wrote:Nice work stu,

Thanks Matt.

mattG wrote:what size are the rear speakers on the sides?

They're 13cm Infinity's
With the benefit of hindsight, I should have gone for 6x4's - they would have fitted better. Not sure if anyone does that size component speakers though.

Stu - thats a nice tidy install mate!!!
That's one place i hadn't thought of putting an amp and it's given me an interesting idea - although my amps are a bit bigger than yours!!!!

Someone else had a thread on here fairly recently about putting an amp under the heater controls - not sure if they did or not though!!

Would think it will depend on the use etc really, and i think i suggested it could be vented - you could fit a small pair of fans, pulling air from one side of the console and sucking it out of the other.

Personally, i think it's a nice idea, but it'd get way too hot under my kind of abuse!!!!!!!!

miniblob wrote:Stu - thats a nice tidy install mate!!!
That's one place i hadn't thought of putting an amp and it's given me an interesting idea - although my amps are a bit bigger than yours!!!!

Someone else had a thread on here fairly recently about putting an amp under the heater controls - not sure if they did or not though!!

Would think it will depend on the use etc really, and i think i suggested it could be vented - you could fit a small pair of fans, pulling air from one side of the console and sucking it out of the other.

Personally, i think it's a nice idea, but it'd get way too hot under my kind of abuse!!!!!!!!

also another problem would be with coming up to winter, you would be using the heater more so therefore heating it up more,

best thing i can think of would be to mount it in the boot, i know you would have to run longer cables but it wont make that much difference.

Ive put mine under the passenger seat! Easy to access, pretty well ventilated there to...

SHAKEELE30 wrote:Ive put mine under the passenger seat! Easy to access, pretty well ventilated there to...

That was one of my first "preferred sites" as mine is a Touring. I decided against it as Wor Lass is somewhat large and has to have the seat adjusted right down and back. Wouldn't have left enough clearance.

I'm going to mount the amp up front though as my 'boot' is full already with stuff. As I say, I've fitted an amp under the heater controls before without problems so I may risk it with this amp in my current car too. What's the worst that can happen? I'm not worried.

What a cool thread - StuBeeDoo that's a great install!

Not great for front speakers though - too much cable farting about

toby wrote:Not great for front speakers though - too much cable farting about

Ain't that the truth!
I've only got the rear's connected to my amp.

d6dph wrote:Quite a warm area to put an amp in imo, Not a lot of cool air passing over the amp.

true wouldnt sudjest putting it there that area bakes were the fans are

StuBeeDoo wrote:

toby wrote:Not great for front speakers though - too much cable farting about

Ain't that the truth!
I've only got the rear's connected to my amp.

This amp is to drive my front component set up. (Why didn't I say that at the beginning?!)

toby wrote: Why didn't I say that at the beginning?!

D'OH! :lol:

This is what i did with mine




The amps for front and sub are hidden behind the rear seats and the amp for the rears/crossovers are hidden under a false floor

Ok I've had a rethink and am going to put the amp in the boot area somewhere.

I'm hoping there's enough space behind the side panel for a concealed install.

Thanks for all the pics and inspiration zoners.

might be a little extreme, but what about a fake floor in the front passenger well, or behind the drivers seat maybe? and then jsut use one or two pc fans linked to ignition t keep it nice and cool?

I think behind the trim panel in the boot is favorite, for me anyway. I'm after a stealth install.

It went in there quite nicely in the end, with no interior space lost at all.

Not quite the standard of some other installs on here and I'm grateful for your pics.


Cheers
Toby