Fitting a heat exchanger to 4.2 TDi - Question.

[Cuppa]

Hi all,
Progress on fitting out the camper is very slow, but I have finally made a start!

I want to fit a heat exchange unit to provide us with hot water when travelling & wondered if anyone here has fitted one before. If so please could you let me know where you found the most convenient place to 'tee' into the coolant system. Things seem pretty crowded under the bonnet.

The heat exchange unit I've purchased is one contained inside an insulated 24 litre tank, but cutting into the coolant system should be the same as for a Twine or Glind unit or similar.

Happy Australia Day to all.

Regards
Cuppa

[Bigrig]

Welcome back mate - haven't seen you for a while! I've seen a few threads over time on this topic, so hopefully someone can assist.

Happy Aussie Day right back at ya!!!!

[Cuppa]

Thanks Bigrig.

I should add that whilst it is my understanding that heat exchangers of the Twine, Glind & Helton types utilise the cabin heater controls to vary temperature output, that I shouldn't need to do this. My unit has it's own 'tempering valve' to control output temperature (to avoid being scalded), so possibly should be plumbed into the coolant system in a different place????

I have a similar unit in our bus, which works very well (20 minutes driving gives 20 litres of hot water which remains hot for up to 3 days ........ but the cabin heater struggles to get better than lukewarm, something I'd like to avoid/improve on in the Patrol.

regards
Cuppa

[Cuppa]

Ok, I've done some more reading & it seems most folks connect their heat exchangers to the cabin heater connections on the firewall. It appears the way to go is to connect to the hose going to the heater (not the return hose). It should be easy enough to extend the cabin heater input hose to the heat exchanger in the canopy & fit a return hose back to the cabin heater input on the firewall.

Having stood & stared under the bonnet for a while, my best guess is that the cabin heater input hose connection is the top one of the two. Can anyone confirm this please?

Thanks
Cuppa

[dasemm]

cuppa, I have a glind in the GU4 and works a treat off of the cabin heater connection. Mine sits directly in front of the intercooler and the pump is near the firewall on the passengers side.

Darren.

[Cuppa]

Hi Darren,
Thanks for confirming that the heater connection is where I should connect to. I can't make out from your pic whether you've connected to the top or the bottom heater connection though. Can you confirm which one, ta.

Regards
Cuppa

[dasemm]

Cuppa, I have mine connected to the top, been like that for 5+ years. I have also found that engine speed is makes a big difference in temperature as well, I usually set the "choke" to 1500 rpm..

[Snafu]

Which is the inlet and outlet on the heater, as I'm installing a donaldson coolant filter which connects in parrallel to the heater but need to know which is inlet and outlet. So I get the correct direction flow through the filter.
Cheers
Snafu