The Quest For Warmth.

The lower dash / heater distribution box on my Series 3 was so rotten I never even considered trying to repair it so I set about trying build my own and upgrade a few other parts along the way.

This is the current heater box.



It has a rotary valve that controls a 3 port output. 2 ports go to the drivers side and one to the the passenger.



And a 2 port butterfly valve with both ports feeding the passenger.



In addition to these 5 controlled outputs I have 4 permanently open ports to that feed the windscreen and side windows, the picture below shows the current installation.



To provide the air flow I have fitted 2 centrifugal fans in series that pick up their air supply from the front.





Things I learnt along the way. The grey smaller bore hose that feeds the side windows is electrical conduit that makes a terrible howling noise if all the ports are closed and the fans on full bore, so bad that I cant here the engine.

Axial fans, on paper move a huge amount of air, if you put any sort of restriction in their path like a heater matrix the flow seems to collapse. I tried a generic Ebay axial bilge blower which worked well on the bench but poorly when plumbed in.

Having the air pickup in front of the rad really improves flow to the point that on a day like today there is enough forced airflow without the fans, the flip side is I have a 200 di conversion so needed a heater matrix bypass valve fitted.



The 200 replaced a 2.25 diesel and runs quite a bit warmer. I have retained the Series sender unit and when the gauge reads on the "N" which would be normal for the 2,25 the heater puts out luke warm air, when the 200 is up to operating temperature the needle on the gauge hovers at the top of the "N" and the heater puts out very much warmer air.

That's an impressive job. My heater snail is rotten and will be replaced. I have a petrol and when heater is running it heats the inside OK,but the demist is pathetic.

Great work. How much more expensive is it than a dirty rag crumpled on the shelf

Seriously though looks good. I found corrugated pipe without a reducer at the exit sounds orible. I managed to remove everything but two one and a half inch pipes to the demisters on mine and that sounded loud enough until I put the slotted exit on the end.

Im now working on cab heat.

Have a 200di fitted series 3 standard heater fan but with a double heater matrix set up loads of heat once engine warm.
This is plumbed so hottest water enters at cab side so cooler water pre heats air before reaching inner matrix.
Have a drilled milk bottle top inserted in passenger side window demist to balance the flow preference in favour of drivers side.

Made a fan up myself using a LDV van fan but have not fitted it been lying in my garage for two years as current set up works fine.

Nicjaxe has a ram effect system on his landrover .

That's very nice work, I had to do a similar thing my self oh hold on I just had the butler press the heated seat switch and seat the climate control to 24 because 26 was just a little to warm .

I like the twin matrix setup, do you get good flow through with the standard fan and pickup point. For a while I was running my Series fan with one of the new centrifugal fans in series, made a huge improvement in the flow. Both new fans only draw a little more current than the original Series one but the output is significantly better and I'm sure the wing pickup starves the inlet of air as speeds increase.

All the black hose is Henry Hoover hose (apart from a bit of old fabric covered hose which will be replaced when the new stuff arrives) which I guess is designed to flow air so makes no noise.

One thing I did suffer with the 200 di was getting it up to running temperature in the winter. I checked my aftermarket thermostat in a pan on the hob and it opened at 88 deg as specified, it was only when I tested it next to a genuine Land Rover item I could see what was wrong, they both opened at 88 but when the water was cooling down the genuine one started closing when the temperature had only dropped a few degrees, the aftermarket one didn't start responding until 5 or more degrees were lost and then it was quite slow. With such a large amount of hysteresis the engine would never quite get up to temperature on anything but a very long and hard run, you could even see the temperature drop a bit when ticking over in traffic.

With a bit of luck this will be warming my cockles this winter.



Not sure if its a runner yet as it had no switchgear. So thats what I have been doing today......



Its a bit complicated and being an old unit is a bit bigger that expected but I hope it will live under the passenger seat.