Electric pre heater fitting

Evening all,

Fed up with how long the TD5 takes to warm up, I went and bought myself a 2.2kw mains electric pre heater last week. Unfortunately it didn't come with any instructions, but I figured the best pipes to connect to would be the heater matrix pipes. A quick search on here and it seems that others would agree. However, would it be best to fit it to the pipe into the matrix, or the pipe out? Should the inlet and outlet on the preheater even go on the same pipe? Or should I connect the inlet on the preheater to the outlet pipe on the matrix and the outlet on the heater to the inlet on the matrix?

Thoughts and suggestions welcome.

Thanks.

Not sure how the Disco turns the heater off but many cars do it by a valve in the heater pipes or heater that simply stops the flow of water through the matrix. If you put the pre-heater in the flow or return from the vehicle heater you need to make sure that the valve is on when you leave the vehicle or there will be no water passing through the pre-heater, meaning no pre-heating, and possibly causing the pre-heater to over-heat.

I have been considering doing this and have come to the conclusion that the best way would be to put a T-piece in the flow and return to the heater and put the pre-heater in parallel with the matrix. That way if the heater valve is closed the pre-heated water will heat the engine, although it may need a one-way valve in the pre-heater loop to ensure that the heated water from the engine cannot simply bypass the heater matrix when the engine is running.

I speak not from knowledge, but from my thoughts as to how I would do it on my 110 - good luck!

The D2 has free flow through the heater matrix and the system is conceived as the flow to be directed entirely there untill the thermostat opens so the easyest and only good way to install a pre-heater is to insert it in the flow circuit where the red arrow points with inlet to the metal pipe and outlet to the other side as the heater's pump to work in the same way with the engine's pump so the flow to be like the blue arrow(that's important!!!), then it will be good, see attachments an you'll understand(double click on image to magnify and disregard the red arrow in the flow circuit diagram, it was for other thing)...this setup is verified and working, also there is enough space there between the ABS modulator and the bulkhead cos there's the original webasto FBH fitted on those equipped with it from factory, unless your's is LHD then there's space on the other side and you can insert it directly to the matrix inlet in the bulkhead

Is this heater matrix diesel powered or electric?

Thanks for the replies Sierrafery, I was thinking the best place to fit the heater itself would be on the nearside bulkhead - ) don't have a FBH anyway, so space isn't a problem. It looks like getting the bend in a feed pipe off that metal pipe along the side of the engine could be a bit tight, but there should hopefully be enough clearance to not overly bend the pipe and possibly restrict flow.

Would fitting the heater inline be likely to interfere with the coolant flow significantly?

Idrego - do you mean the preheater? It's an electric one.

The Kenlowe was designed not to impede the flow when not in use, I didn't have too much issue on my 300 and I'm soon to switch it onto my TD5

+1 for the flow restriction, it's designed for that kind of serial connection, imo you dont have to bend anything make hose extensions on the heater's ports connect to the metal as it is and you can go with the outlet extension untill the bulkhead where it connects to the matrix or make a 'loop/curl' with the outlet hose and connect it with a piece of pipe to the other pipe where it was just lift it a bit if you see what i mean

Frogwell said:

Evening all,

Fed up with how long the TD5 takes to warm up, I went and bought myself a 2.2kw mains electric pre heater last week. Unfortunately it didn't come with any instructions, but I figured the best pipes to connect to would be the heater matrix pipes. A quick search on here and it seems that others would agree. However, would it be best to fit it to the pipe into the matrix, or the pipe out? Should the inlet and outlet on the preheater even go on the same pipe? Or should I connect the inlet on the preheater to the outlet pipe on the matrix and the outlet on the heater to the inlet on the matrix?

Thoughts and suggestions welcome.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

inline in the inlet to heater hose

sierrafery said:

The D2 has free flow through the heater matrix and the system is conceived as the flow to be directed entirely there untill the thermostat opens so the easyest and only good way to install a pre-heater is to insert it in the flow circuit where the red arrow points with inlet to the metal pipe and outlet to the other side as the heater's pump to work in the same way with the engine's pump so the flow to be like the blue arrow(that's important!!!), then it will be good, see attachments an you'll understand(double click on image to magnify and disregard the red arrow in the flow circuit diagram, it was for other thing)...this setup is verified and working, also there is enough space there between the ABS modulator and the bulkhead cos there's the original webasto FBH fitted on those equipped with it from factory, unless your's is LHD then there's space on the other side and you can insert it directly to the matrix inlet in the bulkhead

Click to expand...

I have looked at your pictures but still don’t understand do I cut the metal pipe to fit the kenlow heater flow pipe so that the flow goes through the heater.
So it looks to me like I cut the pipe put one hose on one side and the other on the other side so the flow goes through the pump heater in the same flow direction?i did fit this to old 3 hundred but can not remember how I did.