Series (Defender) heater matrix "Upgrade"

[youngengineer]

Well after years of persistent leaking, my series 3 heater matrix finally gave up the ghost dumping litres of coolant into the passenger footwell.

A simple bypass of the heater core was enough to get home and keep on going until now, however it's been getting unbearably cold..

I've been looking at several guides on retrofitting a defender heatercore assembly into a series 3, however it is not a plug and play solution requiring modification to the electrics/wings/bulkhead as well as actually sourcing a decent defender heatercore in the first place which seem to be either in terrible condition or expensive.

I read something not long ago about the series 3 and defender heater matrix being of a similar if not identical size. Feeling adventurous and with defender heater matrixes as cheap as £26 on eBay, I thought I would experiment.

As you can see from the first photo, they are not the same size at all!

I wasn't about to return it regardless, heating had to be implemented by the end of the day.

A few cuts here and there and and she was in.. 

Ok it's a bit of a bodge job but it's really cheap and easy and the heat output is significant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by youngengineer

[mickeyw]

Well bodge or not, that looks like a reasonably tidy effort considering the size difference.

Is the significant heat output gauged with it fitted to the truck or on the bench? It's astonishing how much heat is lost into warning the bulkhead up. 

I lined my 110's heater ducting with foam to combat the cold steel surfaces soaking the heat away. It's hard to say how much it's helped but it does produce good heat.

[Landrover17H]

It's a lot of pain but I put a RHD coiler unit in, this tied to a LHD venturi. Thus, with yet more messing, it's possible to link up the S3 inlet. But as  I said, a lot of pain. Too cold to go out there now for pix, but here's an old snap that gives a clue.

[Landrover17H]

Seen being sold on eBay, what this is was never revealed.

[youngengineer]

7 hours ago, mickeyw said:

Well bodge or not, that looks like a reasonably tidy effort considering the size difference.

Is the significant heat output gauged with it fitted to the truck or on the bench? It's astonishing how much heat is lost into warning the bulkhead up. 

I lined my 110's heater ducting with foam to combat the cold steel surfaces soaking the heat away. It's hard to say how much it's helped but it does produce good heat.

The heater matrix is larger however I doubt it would make much difference as the the series housing and duct placement limits how much air is actually passed over the full surface.

I think it's really down to two things, the first being the fact that it's brand new and not clogged up with 40 years of debris and sediment and the second being that it has 19mm hose inlet/outlets instead of 16 which would increase the water flow.

Also I should have mentioned that I modified the blower to run on 19v with a step up converter so it blows a Gail. The series matrix could never keep up.

Edited December 9, 2020 by youngengineer

[Landrover17H]

To get round moving enough air, on the stock housing I bodged in an inline bilge-blower.  I posted this solution to forums back in the day, and it seems others have followed in my footsteps. It was OKish, but as said, even a new unclogged S3 matrix will solve a lot of the problems.

S2 or S3 Kodiak or Mansfield heaters are rather dear but brilliant. A coiler heater is the best 'cheapish' way to go. Now, rumour has it, much more coiler stuff thrown on, and I'm set to develop a healthy interest in show-tunes.

Edited December 9, 2020 by Landrover17H

[Landrover17H]

Then there's this... they used to do a RHD.

Edited December 9, 2020 by Landrover17H

[mickeyw]

When I had my V8 engined 88" series II I fitted a series III heater box, and made up ducting for inside from 40mm waste pipe.

Now it's well known that V8s generate a fair bit more heat than other engines, but the star of the party was the blower fan I grafted in that came from a mk3 Vauxhaul Cavalier. That was a 3 speed device, but it was the design of the fan housing that meant it really did shift some air. This combination of parts enabled very rapid demisting, and almost ferocious cabin heat. Clearly the matrix was in good shape, and the V8 kept it well fed with hot water  

[youngengineer]

11 hours ago, Landrover17H said:

Then there's this... they used to do a RHD.

Bit pricy that! I think with Chinese diesel heaters being as cheap as they are, something like that would only interest a collector.

Edited December 9, 2020 by youngengineer

[youngengineer]

2 hours ago, mickeyw said:

When I had my V8 engined 88" series II I fitted a series III heater box, and made up ducting for inside from 40mm waste pipe.

Now it's well known that V8s generate a fair bit more heat than other engines, but the star of the party was the blower fan I grafted in that came from a mk3 Vauxhaul Cavalier. That was a 3 speed device, but it was the design of the fan housing that meant it really did shift some air. This combination of parts enabled very rapid demisting, and almost ferocious cabin heat. Clearly the matrix was in good shape, and the V8 kept it well fed with hot water  

Beauty of the land rovers that is, you can make almost anything fit..

[Gazzar]

And don't need to disassemble the dash to repair!

[youngengineer]

After about a week's use of the defender matrix I have noticed a problem. Because of the way the matrix sits in the series housing, it is now the highest point in the system sitting above the series radiator, allowing air to become trapped. I have managed to removal almost all trapped air however there was allot of "burping", from the radiator.

 

It's not an idea setup, however it does work and the heat output is still very good.

Edited December 13, 2020 by youngengineer

[mickeyw]

One way to make your bleeding easier would be to raise the front of the vehicle, either with a jack, or a pair of ramps. It's worked well me in the past  

[Landrover17H]

[Landrover17H]

^^ Another old piccy of my set-up. ^^ The standard complaints with the leafer-heater seem to revolve around an old and restricted heater-matrix, a new one helps a lot. Made worse by the asthmatic airflow.  The coiler set-up goes some way to solving this, yet LR heaters still aren't famous for their grunt. There's two types of coiler heater-matrix. Be sure to fit the straight-pipe variant.

Bit warm for August Bank Holiday...

[youngengineer]

Thats one outrageous heating system.

[Snagger]

It’s the Arctic kit for MoD Series vehicles.  Very effective.

[Bowie69]

I've heard rumours it may even demist the windscreen -imagine that

[western]

1 hour ago, Bowie69 said:

I've heard rumours it may even demist the windscreen -imagine that

& the door glass, Those military artic heaters work well,