Newbie question: Series 3 heaters

Hi,

Sorry, I'm much more up to speed with modern Land Rovers but I'm going to look at a '72 Series 3 soft top next week. Will it have a heater? Do all Series 3s have heaters? I've got no plans to drive it every day but I'd like to be able to use it through winter and I'd like a heater of some form!

Thanks,

Andrew

they should all have heaters!
tucked up behind bulkhead and wing in near side engine bay.
although the fans get seized and matrixs block so it'll work with varying degrees of heat

it should have two speeds


oh, and if your buying a ragtop look at making/buying a fume hood to keep that precious heat in the cab

Yes they do have heaters ... and no they don't work!


Why?

















Coz it's a Landy!

Oldseadog said:

Yes they do have heaters ... and no they don't work!

Click to expand...

Yeah they do, its just like being breathed on by an asthmatic shrew

Series three heaters do work, just that they work at a lower temperature range than people expect. Seriously though mine works OK. I have flushed the matrix a few times, binned the heater valve on the head and piped with 3/8 bsp pipe and elbow to give good flow to the heater pipe. The valve is not really needed as you only get heat with the fan running. At present my series 3 is on loan to a mate who has just sold a 110 V8 and his comment is the heater is better, this may be due to being an 88 with less area to heat.

And make sure the flaps work (levers on far right of dash top) so you can direct the heat to the cab or windscreen. The biggest problem is the time it takes to heat up that bloody great lump of iron and its ocean of water before there's any heat for you...

Thanks for all the replies. Very helpful. I've seen the fume curtains from Paddock trim and they do seem like a good idea for the rag top in winter.

Last newbie question for a while I promise: do series 3s have removable door tops or is it only the earlier series models? Thanks!

Yes, unless the doors have been changed for ones with windy-up windows.

Series threes have fixed tops. A while ago Exmor Trim where flogging off a cancelled order of removeable ones.

Series 3 has 2 bolts coming through from the door tops the door bottoms. Undo the nuts and the door top should pull up and off the door

Things that help:

- fit a defender fan, it can be made to just fit under the wing with a bit of fiddling and making a square to round adaptor - I used a cut up beer can and isopon
- flush out the matrix - it's probably full of sludge
- check / replace the on/off tap on the front of the block - it may be blocked/knackered
- poke bits of foam/bog roll/old socks into all the leaky bits of body/tilt
- gaffer tape over all the holes
- replace all door seals - I'm still struggling to get all the doors and seals to meet up nicely
- fit a fume curtain - or make one out blankets & gaffer tape
- fit an electric fan, engine heats up much quicker
- wear thermals
- tell the missus to stop frigging whingeing

My rag top is too warm on a slowish run on a wind-free day but still too draughty in the recent storms. The biggest help were from the defender fan (just a bit more blow than the series even though it looks to be a similar motor) followed by the electric fan followed by the 82 degree stat. Most mornings though after doing the three hundred point turn to get out of our street I'm sweating my arse off anyway....

Sorry I read removeable door tops as easy lift off jobs, not spanners out to dismantle, The Exmor ones where roll up jobs from memory.