| bottlediggertom |
Thu Aug 21, 2008 11:46 am |
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hey there you lot!!
after poking about under my van to see how i can get my heaters working better i noticed that my heat exchangers were totally rotten :( no wounder my van steams up all the time after taking one off the little bit of exposed exhaust pipe fell to bits to
i already have a stainless collector and back box so I'm going to have a go at making some stainless heaters
a couple of things to point out my old heaters had the flaps fixed open and they both exited through a vent under my back seat so the heat traveled the shortest distance under the van in the cold
i have a plate that fastens over the vent to block the heaters of in the summer
the new heaters will be a straight through job with no flaps and bits
PS I'm a welder so it wont be a really hard job 8)
bits so far finns only tacked on there will also be a load more at the top (hottest bit) but i need to sort out the shape of the outside shell first
any tips or comments would be cool
i know stainless don't conduct heat as good as ally so thats why I'm going for loads of thin (2mm finns)
my old heater with a bodged exhaust repair to get my by for the moment the old shell latterly just pulled of
don't know if I'm right or not but i don't think these are German
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| WendyArmbuster |
Thu Aug 21, 2008 4:53 pm |
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Nice. I'm going to be watching this closely. My long term goals include a project like this, as I work in a stainless steel tubing fab shop. I was considering press fitting on a bunch of waterjetted or laser cut aluminum rings over the stainless tube instead of fins to increase surface area. I'm looking forward to how you connect to the fan housing.
Keep it up!
Brian Z |
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| bottlediggertom |
Fri Aug 22, 2008 7:02 am |
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i had a go at ally rigs mate CNC punched 3mm heated up and stretched on but it was a nightmare trying to press them on and getting round the bend also where the stainless tube has been bent and formed its under size and not perfectly round i ended up just bending the rings out of shape the fit was not good at all they probably would of just ended up rattling about after a couple of heat ups and cool downs
but the main thing that put me of that idea was for the best air to hot metal flow the heat sink steel ally what ever needs to flow the same way as the air flow not against it the air will tend to hit the first ring then just tumble over the tops of the rest
with length ways fins you get more steel to air contact and a smoother flow
well i thing thats how it goes I'm just a sheet metal worker not a rocket scientist :? :?
as for connecting to the fan housing pretty much as standard but rather than having the air inlet on the top like standard I'm going to have mine on the sides pointing towards the engine
mainly because the stainless header like most other aftermarket exhausts the pipe work goes straight under the stock tin wear where the air pipe goes through so they usually end up badly kinked round the exhaust pipe just to connect to the heat exchangers |
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