Heater plumbing.
- Thread starter PDub
- Start date
Paul, I believe ERA runs the heater from the front pipes. You might check their website.
paul correct me if i,m wrong but if you take you heater pipes off from the pipes to the rad you will get no heat until the stat has opened were as if you take it from the pump it pumps warm warter from the block around the heater radiator befor the stat opens and then thius is controled by your heater valve to stop the flow to cool the heater matrix down
chris parker
ps what heater box are you going with
chris parker
ps what heater box are you going with
You are correct Chris in that the extra plumbing is so your heater works quickly. I have asked around and alot of people seem to run without stats so rendering the extra plumbing pointless. I was looking over a GT yesterday and it was started and run for 1-2 minutes and the rad was already hot - no stat. I'm just curious as to wether it's worth all the extra plumbing as the most common problem is too much heat.
Paul
My RF has the heater taken from the main coolant pipes which run along the floor. That's more or less what you have in mind I think.
It works quite well. Probably not as well as hooking it up to the pump, but I've never got cold in the car anyway.
The only real problem is that you have to bleed the air out of the heater after you fill the cooling system. Too much air in there will stop any coolant passing through the heater core at all.
Regards
John
My RF has the heater taken from the main coolant pipes which run along the floor. That's more or less what you have in mind I think.
It works quite well. Probably not as well as hooking it up to the pump, but I've never got cold in the car anyway.
The only real problem is that you have to bleed the air out of the heater after you fill the cooling system. Too much air in there will stop any coolant passing through the heater core at all.
Regards
John
Peter Delaney
GT40s Supporter
I have my heater pipes coming off the main coolant tubes just in front of the front bulkhead (angled at 45deg forward so there is a "suck & blow" effect). This seems to work fine, but as pointed out by others, I have to wait a while for things to heat up. This is not a real problem here in Oz, but may add a few minutes to trips in the UK !
I chose the front pipe approach as the DRB has quite a narrow centre tunnel with rad, A/C, vacuum, brake & clutch pipes all running through it - to get anything else down there was going to be a major challenge !
I had problems with getting the air out of the heater core when first filling the system, so I am going to splice a simple tap into the top heater hose near the heater core so that I can bleed at that point via a length of temporary plastic tubing when required in the future (I pinched this idea from a Toyota MR2 which has the plastic hose coiled up for just such a purpose).
Kind Regards,
Peter D.
I chose the front pipe approach as the DRB has quite a narrow centre tunnel with rad, A/C, vacuum, brake & clutch pipes all running through it - to get anything else down there was going to be a major challenge !
I had problems with getting the air out of the heater core when first filling the system, so I am going to splice a simple tap into the top heater hose near the heater core so that I can bleed at that point via a length of temporary plastic tubing when required in the future (I pinched this idea from a Toyota MR2 which has the plastic hose coiled up for just such a purpose).
Kind Regards,
Peter D.
Can't post photo's for a few days, but taking the heater core directly off the main coolant pipes will not promote flow through the core. The engine pump would rather push the coolant through the radiator, not the heater core.
I added a Davies Craig EBP, booster pump, to force flow through the heater core. I put a microswitch on the control for the heater valve so that the pump starts once the valve is opened a bit. It works wonderfully. I run a Davies Craig EWP pump on the engine. No thermostat. Warmup is within 5 miles.
At US $200, the booster pump is not cheap, but it is small and works. Enough heat to run you out vs no heat before.
A good thing for us in cooler climates.
I added a Davies Craig EBP, booster pump, to force flow through the heater core. I put a microswitch on the control for the heater valve so that the pump starts once the valve is opened a bit. It works wonderfully. I run a Davies Craig EWP pump on the engine. No thermostat. Warmup is within 5 miles.
At US $200, the booster pump is not cheap, but it is small and works. Enough heat to run you out vs no heat before.
A good thing for us in cooler climates.
Hi,
In the UK, the heater isn't for warmth, but to provide hot demist air to clear the windscreen, so its got to work quickly in cold or wet (i.e. most of British ! ) weather. For this reason mine's plumbed direct through the water pump, so it gets all the engine heat before the thermostat opens. More than this, it uses the thermostat bypass circuit, and runs permanently hot. There is so much heat generated inside the cockpit that the heater matrix with the fan turned off, makes little difference to the generally high levels of discomfort ! Also, this way the heater matrix is self-bleeding as the air is all blown straight through at high velocity before the thermostat opens ( and the air is then extracted from the inlet manifold by a bleed circuit to the header tank. There's plenty of heat for passengers without a heater, its just a question of getting all the huff off the inside of the windscreen. In a hot country, then maybe a heater isn't needed at all. As for running without a thermostat, how do you get the engine to run at the right temperature without a thermostat ? Bearing in mind that 90 percent of engine wear occurs before the engine reaches 85 deg centigrade, why would you NOT fit a thermostat ? If you have to take the thermostat out to get the engine to cool properly, then you've got something else wrong.
Tony.
In the UK, the heater isn't for warmth, but to provide hot demist air to clear the windscreen, so its got to work quickly in cold or wet (i.e. most of British ! ) weather. For this reason mine's plumbed direct through the water pump, so it gets all the engine heat before the thermostat opens. More than this, it uses the thermostat bypass circuit, and runs permanently hot. There is so much heat generated inside the cockpit that the heater matrix with the fan turned off, makes little difference to the generally high levels of discomfort ! Also, this way the heater matrix is self-bleeding as the air is all blown straight through at high velocity before the thermostat opens ( and the air is then extracted from the inlet manifold by a bleed circuit to the header tank. There's plenty of heat for passengers without a heater, its just a question of getting all the huff off the inside of the windscreen. In a hot country, then maybe a heater isn't needed at all. As for running without a thermostat, how do you get the engine to run at the right temperature without a thermostat ? Bearing in mind that 90 percent of engine wear occurs before the engine reaches 85 deg centigrade, why would you NOT fit a thermostat ? If you have to take the thermostat out to get the engine to cool properly, then you've got something else wrong.
Tony.
I agree with Tony on the thermostat. You need it to close and allow time for coolant to dwell in the radiator and throw off the heat. If it just ciculates constantly, the whole system just rises to and stays at the top temp, which is probably too high especially for spirited driving.
Hi Paul,
an alternative method is to forget about plumbing in a heater and to use an electric "hairdryer" to cope with the demisting.
Mike (Jasper) contributed this to a previous thread:
http://www.nfauto.co.uk/demist.htm
At Silverstone in the piddling rain on Monday, with two people in my 40, the demisting was somewhat, er, weak - and I can't help but think this solution could turn out to be better than my setup.
Anyway, just a thought......
Charles
an alternative method is to forget about plumbing in a heater and to use an electric "hairdryer" to cope with the demisting.
Mike (Jasper) contributed this to a previous thread:
http://www.nfauto.co.uk/demist.htm
At Silverstone in the piddling rain on Monday, with two people in my 40, the demisting was somewhat, er, weak - and I can't help but think this solution could turn out to be better than my setup.
Anyway, just a thought......
Charles
Thanks for all the replies fellas.
I have decided to go with conventional plumbing from the w.pump and inlet manifold ,as it seems to make sense in the UK. I'm hoping to run the pipes down the central tunnel to keep all the hot pipes together and insulate them as best I can. As far as demisting goes ,I haven't found anything better than airconditioning to clear windows ,as the chilled air is naturally very dry.
I have decided to go with conventional plumbing from the w.pump and inlet manifold ,as it seems to make sense in the UK. I'm hoping to run the pipes down the central tunnel to keep all the hot pipes together and insulate them as best I can. As far as demisting goes ,I haven't found anything better than airconditioning to clear windows ,as the chilled air is naturally very dry.
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