Adding Diesel Heater to '03 Eurovan

[dbeeby]

I bought a Silvel diesel heater about a year ago so I could stay warm when camping or working in my "mobile office" during winter months. Previously, I would put the heater in front of the passenger seat and route the exhaust through the cracked front door. This setup isn't ideal because the heat is way up in the front (requiring ducting) and I needed to use foam and tape to seal the door gap. So today I "installed" it and routed the exhaust pipe under the van.

NB 1: the factory heater in the back of my van does not work (there's a heat exchanger coolant hose that blew out last summer and was capped by a shop), but the front heat is sufficient for the whole car when driving. I anticipate that your rear heat will continue to work around the gaps if you decide to do this installation in your working-heat van.

NB 2: the "installation" is not permanent. I'll remove this in the spring and reinstall it for colder months.

Steps:
1. Remove the rear heater baffle behind the passenger's seat.
2. Drill two small holes in the wood for the heater unit's studs to peg into and a 1 1/8" hole at the bottom of the plastic housing as close to the radiator as you can get and aligned correctly to the studs/pegs above (measure thrice!).
3. Dry-fit the exhaust pipe and then worm clamp it to the heater.
4. Use part of the heater's case to fashion a caddy for the diesel tank (primed, then painted with interior trim paint).
5. Use about 3' of 3/16" fuel hose to run from the tank to the pump and from the pump to the underside of the heater.
6. Stuff the pump, the power supply and most of the wiring harnesses under the passenger's seat.
7. Push the studs into the holes so that the heater won't jostle around.
8. Route the exhaust pipe over the muffler pipe (and wire it to the muffler pipe to minimize vibrations).
9. Power up the heater and prime the fuel lines following the diesel heater manufacturer's instructions.
10. Set to the lowest setting (1.7hz) and enjoy a seventy-degree van on a thirty-degree day.

The unit only draws about fifteen watts every 30 seconds, so my puny Ecoflow will power it for about nine hours burning about a dollar's worth of diesel.

The rotating front passenger seat will clear the tank caddy mounted to the B pillar and the jump seat in the rear fits neatly over the heater and control panel.

Here are some photos:

Exhaust pipe:

Interior setup:

[bigfoot_ev]

Well I certainly love my diesel heater! It is no longer a special treat for when the temperatures get down low, it's a special treat whenever we want to warm up the inside regardless of how cold it is outside. Just push a button. Glad you now have that treat as well.

Once we had the heater always available, I was surprised how often we use it.

I seem to recall you did a rear heat delete, so why not remove the entire rear heater box and ducting? The reason I bring it up is because it frees up a lot of space underneath that you might be able to use to permanently mount your heater. Also, you might find a place to put your diesel tank out of the inside. At first I put my diesel tank above the battery under the hood. I then went with a larger tank and it is sitting in my spare tire holder. My spare tire is on a rear hatch rack.

One thing I was wondering about in your photos. It looks like the heater exhaust is running out a hole in the heater box. If so, are you sure it won't get too hot and melt the plastic? I know the exhaust on my heater gets very hot.
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2003 Westfalia Weekender, AXK, 01P

[jjvincent]

Back in the early 90's I was building Police cars for use in Siberia. These were vehicles like Ford Explorers and Vans. I installed lots of Eberspacher gasoline heaters in them. You had to pull the gas tank and install a dip tube but it had to run off off the tank in the vehicle. I put them under the rear seat.

I'd think you could do the same for an EV. They are pretty small but require some planning. In the end, there's enough room you could streamline it and then spend more time just leaving it there and using it whenever you want.

[dbeeby]

[jjvincent]

[Abscate]

[WorthaTry]

Thanks for sharing how you added this. It's a subject I've been recently thinking about but not certain how best to approach. I'm curious about the idea of moving it all outside underneath. How does one keep the fuel from gelling when you do this? Is it just a matter of using the right additives? I have almost no experience with diesel vehicles but I have had experience with fuel oil gelling in the tank in my garage back when my house was heated by fuel oil.

I had been thinking of maybe locating a diesel heater in the space under the rear seat. Except that seems unnecessarily complicated because unlike in the Vanagon, the whole seat moves when you fold it up/down, instead of just the cushions.

Also just curious, where in NY are you? I'm in Dryden.
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2001 EV MV Wk

[SambaBurnsRed]

We formulated a winter-spec diesel at Suncor dist'n terminal. If it's good for trucks it should be fine for a heater I would think.

There iisn't a lot real estate in the EV (like an RV would have) for these add-on accessories. eg I made everything as compact as possible for the inverter, subwoofer amp, etc.

Having crawled around underneath, there is room there, and if you add a splash shield perhaps, tie the heated air pipe into floor/2nd heating system vent. Put the tank underside as well. Relocate the spare tire, as suggested above.

[dbeeby]

@worthatry, I've also been thinking about mounting the heater unit under the rear seat and it might work pretty well even though the rear seat is movable...

Here's how I might do it.

1. Mount the heater with the blower nearly abutting the front of the rear seat.
2. Drill two holes in the floor (for the exhaust and fresh air inlet).
3. Cut a 3" hole in the front/base of the seat.
4. Install ~2'-2.5' of flexible duct between the blower outlet and the seat hole.
5. Mount the pump and diesel tank along the wall behind the heater at the rear of the van.

When the rear seat is "down" the flexible duct should extend. And adding fuel would simply be a matter of propping up the rear shelf.

I'm in Brooklyn. I haven't had any trouble with the diesel gelling, but it's only gotten into the low 20s here this year. But even in Michigan in the 80s I never had a problem with my diesel Rabbit or MB300Ds. Unless it gets other-worldly cold in Dryden you should be OK.

[67rustavenger]

[dbeeby]

[bigfoot_ev]

I recently saw a German van conversion (Spacecamper) where they routed the hot air outlet into the rear most space of the slider step. It was covered by a small box that also had storage above the heater duct. This allowed the ducting to be fixed and not accordion back and forth.

If I still had the original layout I could check to see if you have enough space to do that while placing the heater as you show above. It may require some modification to the inside panel. Or, you might have enough space to route around the bench support and pass in front of the 12v outlet.

And then again, there is always the option to mount it underneath inside a protective box. A number of folks on this forum have done that and documented the process.
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2003 Westfalia Weekender, AXK, 01P

[dbeeby]

@bigfoot_ev

FYI, I checked the exhaust pipe again this weekend and it had melted the heater box a bit. I am going to insulate it with fiberglass tape.