Cant get one thing finished for new things to do.

Picked up a diesel heater tonight. Its an early Eberspächer and was going under the passenger seat but I'm not sure it will fit now. Its bleedin massive. Any road up Its not complete and will very likely need a bit of servicing etc before shoehorning into the series.
I only want it as a pre heater/defroster and the idea is to use the spare switching gear on my central locking system so I can fire it up from the kitchen half an hour before I bare the pending winter weather. I even have a spare little button on the key fob all ready.

With so many things half done on the heap, its time I stopped planning anything else until I can finish something for once. The biggest problem with that when using it most days is one thing cant be finished until something else is done.

Why not go for one of those warm start systems instead?

(Electric heater that warms up the coolant in the engine - not exactly a block heater because it gets plumbed into the rubber hoses - but essentially does the same)

Because you cant slip a flexible pipe on one of those and heat a tent or caravan through the window. Equally I would have had to spend lots of money on a water heater and this air heater was almost free.

Almost free eh? That's almost as good as free...

Stretch said:

Almost free eh? That's almost as good as free...

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Yea, and it will only cost me five grand to get running.............

I have often thought about fitting coolant heaters to save me having to keep watch whilst the car defrosts

I know I would never get round to fitting it though

honolulujoe said:

I have often thought about fitting coolant heaters to save me having to keep watch whilst the car defrosts

I know I would never get round to fitting it though

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Really easy to do - much easier than what Bob has got on his plate.

Stretch said:

Really easy to do - much easier than what Bob has got on his plate.

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I tell you what, your not wrong. As this one has no switch gear its a nightmare just identifying what loom it has. The bosh have a lot to answer for.
From what I can gather and its very sketchy, its a D3 unit with D3cc running gear and ECU. Started ordering electronic components to build an on and off button and a temperature sending unit but looking at the fuzzy schematics on the web its going to be a sod.

Bobsticle said:

I tell you what, your not wrong. As this one has no switch gear its a nightmare just identifying what loom it has. The bosh have a lot to answer for.
From what I can gather and its very sketchy, its a D3 unit with D3cc running gear and ECU. Started ordering electronic components to build an on and off button and a temperature sending unit but looking at the fuzzy schematics on the web its going to be a sod.

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What's it actually do then?

Wot's electrickery got to do with it? Isn't it just a "click click - woof" type of system? Electronics?

Sounded like an open flu CO poisoning type of thing - nothing too advanced...

...perhaps we need pictures to fully understand the mountain you're about to climb

Its a diesel burner. Air is taken through a pipe, mixed with diesel and ignited. This is mechanically exhausted out through a second pipe. This continues inside a sealed finned chamber whilst air is blown through the fins and out into your environment.

That's some piece of kit. Isn't there somewhere to the rear underneath where it could be positioned?

Everything relating to these beastys is expensive. The box alone to mount it inside is ridiculous. My plan is to fit it under the passenger seat but this one isnt as compact as the modern pictured one. Its the same shape, just bigger. I am hoping I can drill holes both at the rear and footwell side and sit it between the two so it sucks air from behind the seat box and blows it into the cab. The burner intake can be routed underneath and the exhaust out through the near side skirt so there are no fumes being sucked back in.

I run a pair of the d3s in my bus good heaters but like you say parts can be expensive

Bobsticle said:

Its a diesel burner. Air is taken through a pipe, mixed with diesel and ignited. This is mechanically exhausted out through a second pipe. This continues inside a sealed finned chamber whilst air is blown through the fins and out into your environment.

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That's a jet engine Bob.

they sound like a jet engine with no exhaust fitted lol

Mine looks less like one.....................



But will sound like one.

its older one with the external ecu much better the newer ones are a pain they lock out if they fail to fire 3 times etc... and need diagnostics to unlock etc...

Heres a good website for you. You can download all the manuals faults etc....
https://www.butlertechnik.com/technical_library/air-heaters-d4

Bobsticle said:

Mine looks less like one.....................

View attachment 109589

But will sound like one.

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Was that tuna in brine or oil?

Sorry this is not mine. Its one off a Russian youtube vid. I went to take a photo and my phone died. It is the same model however without the on and off button.