Heater Exhaust

[Woreign]

I took a short trip to Wilmington this weekend (approx 200 miles round trip) to a car show. The weather was quite chilly, so I had the top up, the windows in, and the heater on. It's been mentioned on other postings that the soft top is "drafty" and I have to agree...

While driving I would occasionally smell the heater exhaust. Is this normal? Either my heater is out of tune, or the draftiness of the soft top sucked the fumes inside? I'm currently restoring a hard top that plan on installing within a few weeks. I hope that will reduce the draftiness and keep the heater exhaust outside.

By the way, couldn't the German engineers find a better location for the exhaust? I imagine that the movement of the tire directs most of the fumes down to the road?

I also read that the heater will singe the hair off your leg if you're not carefull. My heater didn't seem to get that hot. It performed wonderfully, but I'm wondering if the temperature can be increased? Maybe the thermostate or a sensor needs to be adjusted? Would increasing the fuel volume in the fuel pump increase th eheat output?

Thanks for your input!

[Ian Epperson]

I don't smell the fumes from the heater when it's running no matter what speed I'm going. Something must be amiss with your setup - could the exhaust pipe be leaking into the boot, then seeping into the cabin?

There's a thermostat pull on the left side of the dash, pull it out to increase the temp. Most of them are stuck - I've only even seen one that wasn't. If you follow that cable under the hood, you'll see where it stops in a box that sits on the output side of the heater. There are also two wires going to this box and a simple compression band holds it in place. This box is the thermostat. The thermostat simply makes or breaks the connection between those wires to alternate between running the fuel pump (switch on) and letting the heater cool down (switch off). If the temp is low, it holds the connection closed; if it goes over temp, it opens those wires and the heater goes into its cooldown mode. At its highest setting, the therostat is supposed to open at 212 degrees (boiling point of water). Note that the thermostat is inline with the switch on the dashboard and turning off the switch is exactly the same thing as the thermostat opening.

Do not simply short out the thermostat! The heater will quickly run up over 212 degrees, and at 300 degrees will short itself out internally and pop the fuse located under the cover. Also, make sure that's only an 8 amp fuse - it's supposed to short on overtemp (many people see it pop and figure that something is wrong and put a 16 amp or higher fuse in its place!)