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"supercharging" your heater


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This kind of reminds me of Summer! you remember, when we had a mini heat wave for about 3 days, and everyone was queing up in shops to panic buy household cooling fans, then a week later all back to normal , and fans go in the loft. i cant believe SO many people have NEVER bought a fan before. I use a rad muff, 3 stage one, at the mo. its fully closed, leave it on all year with fully open in summer. Tis only a cold snap! you havent moved to Norway!. it'll be about 10 -12 deg again in a week or 2.

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The heater in my 90 packed up back in October..October 09 so thought it was time to fix it. I'm just going to buy a complete heater/blower unit from a local breaker who's got one. Once the new heater is fitted I'm going to put a new alloy matrix and improved blower motor in the old heater unit a seal it up. Then refit it with the inline blower for added puff. Reading a post the other day(can't remember where)someone used an alloy matrix and a second hand motor and fan from a disco. They said they had to cut the fan down a bit and had to make a back plate of some type. They went on to say it made a great improvment on their 90 heat out put.... Can't wait for round 2 of the snow!!!

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You can get some mental powerful (240cfm!) 4" and 3" (think Defender intake is 4" or thereabouts) in-line bilge blowers that are 12V, they're designed for venting the engine compartment on boats etc.

http://www.detmarcorp.com/blowers.htm

Rigged into the input of a Defender heater box (remove the standard fan and leave the casing there) I imagine it would blow a bit better than standard :P

Edit: Must point out, I haven't looked into the duty cycles or noise levels of these sorts of units, but I imagine there's a range available.

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Edit: Must point out, I haven't looked into the duty cycles or noise levels of these sorts of units, but I imagine there's a range available.

Generally on a petrol fuelled boat, they are turned on 5 minutes before starting the engine to clear any petrol fumes, and then left on (usually forgotten about cos you cannot hear it over the engines and it points overboard) until the engine is turned off and it can be heard again.

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Well if they're DC motors (which I assume they are) then one could rig up a PWM controller so it could be varied in speed as necessary. I mean, even in normal cars the heaters are pretty loud on full bore, but once the heat is in the car they can be turned down to just provide enough to maintain it.

It has to also be said that insulating the car, or reducing the space needing heating with a fume curtain etc, will mean you don't have to have to heater on full bore as long to get it up to temperature.

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When I had my dash apart earlier this year I wondered about the logic of that big box at the bottom of the dash that is used to deflect the air to the various outlets. It must surely cool the warm air as it comes from the heater matrix due to its huge surface area, and even if it warms up must remove quite a bit of warmth from the air as it passes through. I was wondering if anyone has modified it so that the air is ducted within it and then filled the remaining voids with something like expanding foam? Clearly the flaps would still need to move but an ali ducting around them might be possible.

I might have a look on ebay for one to see what can be done for next year.

For what it's worth my 300TDi isn't too bad since I adjusted the cables that operate the flaps etc. Haven't resorted to a red muff yet though as the temp gauge does get to normal quite quickly once on the move.

Interesting post.

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Ok this is what I put together yesterday, not had chance to test it yet as want to sort the wireing out properly.

But I don't think there's a problem with the actual "blow" of the heater just the heat that comes out of it!

I have been thinking about putting a "boost" heater in parellel with the present water matrix, I was thinking of something along the lines of a hair dryer heater element type thing... well as posted earlier, after a conversation with another forum member he suggested a Peugot heater matrix, well I picked one up form ebay and fitted it to a spare heater box I had off a TD5, well the installed matrix looks like this... again not properly function tested but I can't see why it shouldn't work, its got pretty heavy duty wireing going to it so it must pull quite a few amps so working on a relay wireing setup for it. It was relativly easy to fit, just needed to dismantle the heater box to get to all the bits so you could cut the slot for it.

post-20087-037180500 1291571813_thumb.jpg

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post-20087-020304800 1291571885_thumb.jpg

post-20087-011846300 1291571918_thumb.jpg

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When I had my dash apart earlier this year I wondered about the logic of that big box at the bottom of the dash that is used to deflect the air to the various outlets. It must surely cool the warm air as it comes from the heater matrix due to its huge surface area, and even if it warms up must remove quite a bit of warmth from the air as it passes through. I was wondering if anyone has modified it so that the air is ducted within it and then filled the remaining voids with something like expanding foam? Clearly the flaps would still need to move but an ali ducting around them might be possible.

I have thought about this point, you have to warm up all that cold metal ducting before getting proper hot air through it. I wondered whether the flexible ducting found behind the dash on a RRC could be arranged inside the Defender lower dash.

after a conversation with another forum member he suggested a Peugot heater matrix, well I picked one up form ebay and fitted it to a spare heater box I had off a TD5, well the installed matrix looks like this... its got pretty heavy duty wireing going to it so it must pull quite a few amps so working on a relay wireing setup for it.

The electric heater you show looks just like the one fitted to VW Golfs, which draws 80 amps, so yes, wiring does need to be up to spec. Possibly an alternator upgrade would be advantageous. I think the Golf's is about 140A output, LR Tdi is what, 65A?

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I have thought about this point, you have to warm up all that cold metal ducting before getting proper hot air through it. I wondered whether the flexible ducting found behind the dash on a RRC could be arranged inside the Defender lower dash.

The electric heater you show looks just like the one fitted to VW Golfs, which draws 80 amps, so yes, wiring does need to be up to spec. Possibly an alternator upgrade would be advantageous. I think the Golf's is about 140A output, LR Tdi is what, 65A?

Aye, well from the looks of it, there are 3 indipendant heater elements, which will help me control the current draw, initially I was only planning on wireing up 1 of the 3 elements see how my alternator holds up to it, but again I wasn't thinking of using it for prolonged use, more a booster to get the air warmer than it presently is! going to build in an "interlock" too, stop me from leaving it on without the blower, don't want the truck to melt!

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still wondering if its really worth upgrading the heater matrix and fan on a tdi defender.

Over the past week its been averaging -6C (-12C this morning) and my tdi is struggling to even maintain normal operating temperature if i turn the fan on!

If i leave the fan off, it will get up to normal temperature on the gauge. Turn the fan on full speed/hot and i get about 2 minutes of nice warm air. Then the engine starts to cool down, temp gauge goes down to 1/4 warm and the temperature of the air coming out the vents becomes lukewarm. I think defender tdi's are just too over cooled and dont produce anywhere near enough engine heat to really utilise a better heater matrix and fan setup - unless you seriously work the engine on the motorway etc. But certainly in my experience when doing the commute in town, the engine just doesnt push out enough heat to warm the engine, warm the coolant AND provide enough spare heat for the heater matrix.

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still wondering if its really worth upgrading the heater matrix and fan on a tdi defender.

Over the past week its been averaging -6C (-12C this morning) and my tdi is struggling to even maintain normal operating temperature if i turn the fan on!

If i leave the fan off, it will get up to normal temperature on the gauge. Turn the fan on full speed/hot and i get about 2 minutes of nice warm air. Then the engine starts to cool down, temp gauge goes down to 1/4 warm and the temperature of the air coming out the vents becomes lukewarm. I think defender tdi's are just too over cooled and dont produce anywhere near enough engine heat to really utilise a better heater matrix and fan setup - unless you seriously work the engine on the motorway etc. But certainly in my experience when doing the commute in town, the engine just doesnt push out enough heat to warm the engine, warm the coolant AND provide enough spare heat for the heater matrix.

I think you just answered your own question - YES it is!!! I don't know what the outside temperature was but my internal one said 0.1 degrees, that was after a 2 hour drive with luckwarm air fending of the frost on the inside of my windscreen. I couldn't feel my toes and literally couldn't fit any more clothes on... If one wants to operate his landrover well, one has to be alive and unfrozen.

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The electric heater you show looks just like the one fitted to VW Golfs, which draws 80 amps, so yes, wiring does need to be up to spec. Possibly an alternator upgrade would be advantageous. I think the Golf's is about 140A output, LR Tdi is what, 65A?

80 amps :blink::blink: holy electrons ....thats a big draw , there must be better ways to improve interior heat. Thats probably about 4hp getting sucked up , still the engine will get hotter working to run it :P

Ducting within the lower dash will reduce heat loss if its poss to work it .

I have the complete heater from a Bedford minivan in mine, but my bulkhead isnt std. It would fit in a centre cubby tho to heat the interior, leaving the std set-up to do screen.

cheers

Steveb

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I was considering this today while driving home, waiting for the engine to warm up. It does seem to be the case that having the heater on full will cool the engine down if not driving, but it should be able to maintain temperature if you're moving.

I think an ideal option would be an auxiliary air heater under the seats or something, which would provide instant fuel-fired heat at any time necessary.

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Here up north, (north Sweden) from experience I would say that a RadMuff is a good option.

When it is -10 and below I have found that the engine will hold heat if you have a rad muff, any warmer and the muff will make the engine overheat a little.

Round here everywhere you go are parking plugs. You put in this little electric water heater that goes into you water pipes and at parking spots you can just plug in to the electric mains, they can also piggy back a electric powered 1600 KW air fan heater to keep your cab warm. I have this and it's great if you are at home and wanting to warm the truck up, or in a parking lot which has these.

Really though, I am gonna fit a engine warmer as this can work anywhere, and they kick out more heat in the engine then the electric thing, but here it's good to have both really.

only had -28 with a -20 wind chill, last year we had -42. Fun Times ahead....

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My 200Tdi takes an age to heat up. I have to work the engine really hard to get it to working temp. Even then it cools fast. I changed the thermostat last winter. Maybe it's failed again or is leaking a bit? No idea but it's a major irritation.

It's so cold in the cab I fitted a 3kW Eberspacher heater that I use on every journey now.

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the electrical elements are available in tons of cars. the VW, fiat and citeron seem to be listed as AIRCON HEATER RESISTOR

the other ones are coming up as PTC heaters http://www.dbk-usa.com/products/ptcheaters/ptcheaters.htm

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Renault-Espace-IV-PTC-Heater-Genuine-Renault-New-/350324788849?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item5190fc0e71#ht_500wt_922

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