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Engine Pre-heater

I have this one. Not at all as good as the ad says, but slightly better than a standard block heater. Never gets to 75 C, and the pump seems to be anemic. Sweats a bit through the seals as well.

Use one in the UK? Even if the outdoor temperature is 10 C, it's better for the engine to be at operating temperature right away. Saves on fuel as well.
 
Would be nice to have a warm car from the start when cold but the 120 with "power" heat starts blowing warmer-than-ambient air in about 200m of driving so occupants get toasty quickly :)

is it in-line or do you create a bypass for it? it looks a bit small for in-line?
 
It's in-line between the power heater and the heater core. Doesn't seem to restrict the flow much - which agrees with the specs. Openings are same dimension as other plastic pipes on the system. The motor is without a shaft, where the impeller is floating freely when not powered. It does happen that the impeller doesn't start spinning when the electricity comes on and the magnetic field is supposed to pull it into place. Then the thermostat will turn it off, and after a few secs it comes on again. Normally it starts on one of the first three attempts. I have it on a timer to start an hour before driving.
 
I've been meaning to get something similair (hotstart etc) for my 120. Primarily to decrease engine wear as i hope to keep the car for a long time.

Any idea on the longevity of the product?
 
hi guys
i live in Mongolia. Mongolian winter's temperature is -40 (average).
i need engine heater which works in 12v.
any idea or suggestion?



sorry for my bad english.
 
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ganbayar said:
hi guys
i live in Mongolia. Mongolian winter's temperature is -40 (average).
i need engine heater which works in 12v.
any idea or suggestion?
Click to expand...
There is no 12 volt heater that would work commercially available afaik. In any case you would need a trailer-load of batteries to power it.

A petrol or diesel powered heater is the way to go. Works perfect in minus 40. Well, the petrol version in any case. You need a special diesel to stay liquid under -30.


PS - Maths:
a 100 Ah 12 v battery gives much less than 1000 watt-hour when you take it all in less than 1 hour. At a temp of -40 you get maybe 1/3 of that. If you use a 1 kW heater for one hour you might be OK in -40. That would take at least 3 batteries of >100 Ah, and then the batteries would be completely drained and freeze to death. If you have another kind of 12 volt source, you would still need about 100 amps to power any engine heater.
 
merc sprinters have something very similar fitted in near the n/s headlight run off abit of diesel got to be cheaper from a breakers. one of my mates fitted to his camper he said was very easy and cheap to run.
 
For those interested, ROVER 75 CDti came with a Webasto diesel heater, they can be picked up off ebay for about 100 quid, easy to power up even remotely. Just get one with the exhaust, wiring loom ends & its a dead easy job to fit one I reckon. I shall be doing just that shortly.
 
I got solution only 220V coolant heater. Chinese one. but pretty good during winter time in Mongolia. replaced 1.5 month ago because of circulating pump failure inside the heater after 2 years (2 winters) usage. thanks to uHu for info:clap:. I was looking for solution with 12V. But now I understand, need to load 2 more batteries (200A) in my SUV, kkk:icon-biggrin:.
 
Cptsideways said:
For those interested, ROVER 75 CDti came with a Webasto diesel heater, they can be picked up off ebay for about 100 quid, easy to power up even remotely. Just get one with the exhaust, wiring loom ends & its a dead easy job to fit one I reckon. I shall be doing just that shortly.
Click to expand...

These seem to be readily available and way cheaper than a new one at over £500. So, once mounted, these just plumb into the cooling system (rear heater hoses on an 80?), 12v supply for the pump and that's it? Do they have a small inbuilt tank for the diesel or do they also require connecting to the supply from the main diesel tank?
 
Thos rover heaters are 5KW Not bad for the money. Does anyone know what controls them or is it an in built part of the rover dash somewhere
 
IRLGW said:
Thos rover heaters are 5KW Not bad for the money. Does anyone know what controls them or is it an in built part of the rover dash somewhere
Click to expand...

After a bit of inet trawling/research the heater itself looks like a generic item used on many vehicles. If you buy a new one with a universal fitting kit they come with wiring, control unit, timer and a fob. I suspect those fitted as OE to vehicles will have the controls incorporated into the dash/wiring loom. That's probably why there's a lot of used one's on Ebay sold as heater only with no fittings/wiring. JMO
 
Looking at the size of the Webasto Thermo Top units the difficult bit will be finding sufficient space under the bonnet to fit it. Just had a quick measure under there and there's nowhere it will fit straight in.
 
I'm pretty sure they are one and the same as the Rover ones unless I've got it completely wrong…which is possible. [emoji53]
 
I've just fitted a Webasto to my Mazda Bongo camper, pretty simple job (relatively) I've plumbed into the main heater circuit & rewired the factory rear heater blower (just like the 80 LC's) it runs off its own leisure battery which gives it about 24hours of run time.

It awesome as I now a snug winterised Bongo :) & it'll preheat the entire Bongo's waterworks while its at it

Wiring could not be simpler 12V main feed 30ampg fused, 12v feed to the pump, 12v switched feed to the trigger wire. That's it, self contained & working. They do a require a header tank but factory system has one anyway if plumbing into that.
 
Last edited:
How weather proof is the main unit? I'd be interested to know if anyone has fitted one to a 80 and if so where did they mount it. Under the bonnet looks out of the question. I thought maybe mount to a chassis rail underneath the car and plumb in to the coolant lines to the rear heater but it's quite a hostile environment under there. The wiring will be the easy bit.
 
The position shown in the link would be impossible in mine. I have the ABS pump mounted there. There doesn't seem to be anything that could be relocated relatively easily to make space available under the bonnet. I'll keep looking and thinking.
 
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