I have been think of a way to put a heater without the heater lines coming off the water pump. The question is would a oil cooler with a fan provide a little heat. I have thought that I am already running a remote filter under the body and jegs has the little oil cooler radiators with a fan for fairly reasonable. The car is a chopped model a with a big hemi. I could mount it up under the dash out of sight, with a switch on the fan. Is there a reason this should not work or be a good idea?
You would need some sort of flow control so that oil is not always going through the cooler. It would also need to be plumbed so that the oil flow through the cooler is not critical to engine operation. Dan Marvin, Owner Exeter Auto Supply
the exhaust manifold would probably not work because they are custom headers. When you say it would be hot all the time could you put a valve of some sort in line. Doesn't a traditional heater have hot coolant running through it all the time? could you pull the lines in summer?
yes,it's boxed to keep heat out and hot air is vented to the out side.. if you have oil running all the time,it will eventually burn you out of the cab.
Is the intake wet? You could come off the back of it, and then back to the radiator. You would still have lines, just not to the pump. Rich
There are heater core designs that have coolant always running through them. That design has a heater box that seals the heater core from the interior compartment. When heat is needed, the heater box has a door that controls the amount of air flow to the interior. They also have a seperate door for AC and/or fresh air to mix with the heated air to control temperature. First generation Mustangs and Cougars had this type of heater.
I understand the box but old car heaters that I have seen do not have a vent to the outside. They are just a sheetmetal box with a coolant radiator/heater core and a fan. A friend has a f1 truck with a heater and from what I understand is that it has a valve to shut off coolant during warm months. What do you mean by flow control and not being critical to engine operation. Oil coolers are to my understanding helpful by removing heat from the oil and plumbed inline to take away heat from the engine oil. They do make a inline thermostat to control the amount of heat and bypass the oil past the cooler.
intake is not wet and dont want visible lines. It is however a hemi and i was thinking that it might be a possibility to come off the back of one head and into the back of the other. The 392 hemi has ports for a crossover on the front and back of the heads. I dont know if the flow would work. I kind of liked the idea of the oil cooler heater but if anyone knows if this will work off the back of the heads please let me know.
Dad used a piece of wood with a bunch of holes drilled in it to take candles. But that may be a bit too 'old school' for what you are doing. Cosmo
An oil heater would take longer than the coolant heater to get any heat from it. I think that coolant heaters are too slow. Something pulling heat off the exhaust would be quick. Put a box around the exhaust and pull air through it. Neal
i do like the candle idea but i would probably catch myself on fire. I understand the exhaust but it cant be done and the exhaust is to nice to box or mess with. This needs to be clean and if at all possible not visible. I have looked at an old f1 truck box heater and it is simple in operation, box and a fan. i just wanted to know why you could or could not use engine oil instead of water/coolant. Also has this been done.
it would work, but I think the noise would drive me nuts, I have the same setup for my tranny and you can hear it running over the engine(straight pipes), I think scouting out a little oem unit from something, and go that route, then you would have speed control. mixing,etc.
i do know they are load. maybe an oem would be better, there are a lot of cool vintage box heaters. does anyone know if you could route the coolant out of the back of one head and back in the back of the other?
probably not, they both heads are under the same operating pressure, wouldnt move much water that way.
as long as you use a pressure inlet and a non pressure return outlet. to hide the lines i would hard line the heater outlets from the pump ,under the engine along the frme rails into the cab. that way it's not on top looking fugly.
I know it's somewhat O.T. but stuff Ive used for heat VW's gasoline heater http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=868567 And the South Wind heater http://www.bramclassauto.com/SouthWind.php
the car is going to be very nice and i would like to have a heater but not at the expense of it changing the look. Brian Bass is building it and I just wanted to see if there was a way to have heat that wouldnt ruin the look. It gets cold up here in Missouri. It was down to running coolant out and in the back of the heads or hooking something up with engine oil/cooler. I may just need to wear a heavier coat but really like to drive and wouldnt mind a little heat. does a traditional heater have to have coolant flowing through the core or would it heat up just being apart of the coolant system?
electric heater would be fine, i have heard they dont work. has any one used one? would be a simple solution.
if you are looking to stay warm you could run those electric seat heaters. they would do nothing to defrost the windows but it would keep you warm. and they take up no space and are hidden. there are lots of different suppliers for them. We might even sell them.
so going back to traditional heater would this work inlet off of the back of one head and return into the back of the other head. hemi has crossover in the front and back and im running a crossover in front. Would it not flow and create a cool spot of coolant or will it absorb heat from the rest of the system? If the flow wasn't enough could you run an inline pump? This way it would look nice and could route a defrost. the images are just of one heater i found that sold a while back.
But an inline oil thermostat would basically do the opposite of what you want. In the summer, when you don't want heat in the car is when the engine oil will likely be hotter and the thermostat will direct it through the cooler. On days like Christmas is going to be here in KC (high of 14 degrees F) your oil probably isn't going to get very hot, so the thermostat won't direct any oil through the cooler. So I wouldn't spend any money on an oil-based solution. The electric/ceramic heaters work OK for "spot" heating , but draw a lot of current and really won't do much to heat up the car, just take a bit of the chill away. Your best bet is plumbing into the engine coolant, that's where the most heat is available, and the easiest to control through a valve.
DLW, you're running a chopped model a coupe with a HEMI, just pull the firewall insulation when it gets cool.... I know I can feel the heat off my flatty in my 28 roadster on cool nights, if I had a roof I'm sure it would be pretty toasty.
The Jalopy Journal
