Heating/snow cowl

Hello,

So as winter is approaching its starting to get much colder in the defender, I've got a TD5 and I was wondering if there is anything extra I can do to help get the cab a bit warmer? Would fitting a snow cowl help at all?

Thicker gloves, jumper and socks.
Plug the hole up in the passenger door/foot well.
Start the engine 5 minutes earlier and let it warm up.

Rad muff or as we tight scots do. An auld feed bag stuffed in behind the grill

5 minutes???? not much warmth coming out of mine after 20

TomLR said:

5 minutes???? not much warmth coming out of mine after 20

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how is the thermostat???? and how new is the coolant and have you everdone a radiator flush and pressure test

No idea re thermostat, guess with winter coming I need to check as it never gets very warm. Coolant is a couple of weeks old as just replaced chassis.

i brought myself a snow cowl last year for xmas, first off road trip it got smashed to bits.....

gloves and hat will be cheaper

I've adjusted mine, changed the coolant and it's miles better. Although I did notice it took a while to heat up this morning, once on the motorway it was fine though.

Make sure the heater's actually working for a start. Standard heaters are reasonably good when they work

FlyingPete said:

Make sure the heater's actually working for a start. Standard heaters are reasonably good when they work

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good un....... heater core could be plugged or got air in it

Ive owned a few 200/300/td5 and all took 4/5 miles to get to max temp, thats according to a proper temp gauge and not the std land rover one.
Not having face/dash vents is a really crap idea
Thats town work for roughly 2/3 miles then fast A road, obviously if you have fast road to start with it will get up to temp much quicker.

I just cover the lower half of rad with a piece of card in a plastic bag held tight against the face of the rad. Muffs let in to much cold air around the back.As with Lynal temp monitored with a proper gauge with numbers on it.

My trick is a small 240v fan heater sat on the cubby box with an extension running to the garage on a timer switch. 20 mins before I set off for work, timer kicks in. No ice on windows and nice and toasty, set off to work, by the time the cab has cooled down the engine is warm and I can use the heater.

Haha nice idea. I like that alot!

Just as no one s said it...

A snow cowl dies not improve your heaters output. It just stops the inlet being blocked with.... um... snow and other detritus.

Also reduces the amount of water you heater ingests so it doesn't blow hot humid air on your window

Standard heater is fine when set up ok, if it isn't getting up to temp then you need to establish if there is an air-leak in the heater system somewhere or if the engine coolant itself is not the correct temperature (thermostat is usual suspect). If the thermostat is working ok then a rad-muff will do very little (I have never needed one in 16-years of using my TDi soft-top as my daily driver and I don't wrap myself up either).
I removed my KBX inlet grill and fitted a snow-cowl and noticed a significant difference in the amount of air getting into the cab, so much so that I now only use the snow-cowl if there is a real chance of snow and for the rest of the time I remove it and enjoy the generous flow of hot air.

The foam seal between the back of the heater and bulkhead may be gone and air can escape,also a source of engine fumes getting into the cab.

One under-valued gadget is the simple coolant preheater. They plumb into the engine's coolant circuit, and the inbuilt pump circulates the heated coolant around the engine, so you're not starting from cold (the warmer oil and block makes starting easier) and have warm air through the air vents straight away. A couple of them have an inbuilt switch that can be wired into the blower motor circuit, so the car's automatically demisted too

XRIZLAX said:

My trick is a small 240v fan heater sat on the cubby box with an extension running to the garage on a timer switch. 20 mins before I set off for work, timer kicks in. No ice on windows and nice and toasty, set off to work, by the time the cab has cooled down the engine is warm and I can use the heater.

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Funnily enough I had the same idea myself!

The ultimate is probably an independent heater, such as a night heater out of a truck. If I ever go back to a LR (perhaps a 110 V8 CSW) that's what I would do.