Eberspacher
In cold weather a diesel powered water heater can ensure your engine coolant is almost at operating temperature when you get into your vehicle. This has many advantages
- No more getting into a cold, uncomfortable vehicle
- Heaters give our warm air straight away
- Windscreens demisted and quickly removes snow and ice
- Pre-heated engine
- No more cold starts reduce engine wear
Neil Walker installed an Eberspacher unit in his 300Tdi Defender and has produced the following write-up and photographs.
Installation
I mounted mine bottom, passenger side of the engine bay just ahead of the footwell. Bolted to a plate which is in turn bolted to the chassis, been there for over 7 years with no problems so far.
As promised, pictures of an Eberspacher water heater installation.
Standard heater pipe connections.
Eberspacher hose connections. Eberspacher supply miles of hose,
jubilee clips and reinforcing spigots for hose joints.
Truck without unit installed showing mounting location.
I mounted mine bottom, passenger side of the engine bay just ahead of
the footwell. A flat plate is bolted to the chassis utilising some
holes already present. The unit is bolted to this plate using anti
vibration mountings supplied by Eberspacher.
It has been there for over 7 years with no problems so far.
Mounting plate bolted to the chassis.
Air intake - the black hose (about 25mm in diameter) that runs up past the
screenwash reservoir, you can just see the end of it behind the power steering
reservoir.
Exhaust - the faintly visible stainless steel corrugated pipe. The big black
lump on the left is an engine mount and the Eberspacher unit is just visible
behind the elbow of the turbo pipework.
Eberspacher exhaust and silencer.
Hose and electrics - shows the connection of the hose to the unit
also the main electrical supply to the unit (the big multi plug).
Electrical installation - shows the relay and fuses. Again all supplied with
the unit.
Controller - with hindsight a 7 day controller would have been
better, that offers 2 ontimes per day whilst the unit shown allows only 1
ontime once.
It works like this; basically it is a 24 hour clock, which can also
be programmed with 1 operation time to bring the heater on. When you
want to activate the heater you press the programme button and, at the
programmed time, it comes on. If you want additional heat, now, you
simply press the + button and it starts immediately then runs for an
hour.
The 7 day clock allows you to programme 2 times per day for 7 days,
again you press the programme button and it comes on at the allotted time. It can
also be activated by a remote controller at a range of up
to 100 metres. So say you were at work one day and it turned cold
during the day, depending on where you are in relation to your vehicle
you could press the remote and activate it that way, assuming you had
not already done so manually when you got out of it that morning.
Diesel connection. The unit takes diesel from the low pressure side of the
fuel injection pump and, in the words of Eberspacher, uses about an eggcup
full of diesel for each operation.
Overview, the unit shown in situ. You can also see the large
moulded multi plug again.
The Eberspacher heats the coolant to operating temperature, once it has done that, assuming you have set the heater controls, [max heat and min blow] it turns on the heater and fan. So when you do come to the vehicle, the screen is demisted, the cab warm and the engine ready for the day. My wife think this is utterly wonderful, the warm cab and demisted screen aspect of it anyway. Eberspacher go into all this in the instruction booklet that comes with the unit, so no need to worry about remembering any of it.
Hope these are of some help to you. It is a wonderful piece of kit. It takes about an hour to heat the engine to operating temp and demists the cab at the same time. We were in France in January and it was just as effective at -15 as it has been at any other temp.
It can also be used whilst on the move if it does get really cold to supplement the heat from the engine.
Neil Walker
September 2005
Alternatives
A popular alternative to the Eberspacher unit is made by Webasto.
Options
Related Pages:
Defender Webasto Installation
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