Aux heater install into diesel Eurovan

[Joshwa]

My turn to try a Chinese diesel air heater. There are many to chose from at varying prices and heat capacity. 3kw, 5kw and 8kw. I honestly believe that they are all generally the same as far as the core heating body and electronics. 3kw having a smaller body than the 5kw and 8kw, which are the same size. Where the difference comes in, is in the controller, heater exterior body, wiring length and added accessories. I chose a 5kw, but I think I could have been just as happy with a 3kw. Also to mention that I've converted my van to TDI, so I'll be drawing fuel from my fuel tank and not installing the 10 litre fuel tank.
Heres how the kit comes in the box.

Comes with enough accessories to to get you installed. The items i needed outside of what I received, were some wire terminals to attach to power, and some wire. The length given to get me from the heater install point to my dash was about 4'. I needed about 7-8'.

I built this little box out of scrap aluminum to house the heater, to protect from debris, since it will be setting underneath the van.

I thought...I was being clever with this sliding door on the housing. I designed the box to have the exhaust port facing outward on the drivers side of the van, with my sliding door towards the passenger side. Also the sliding door, sliding towards the rear for removal. It unfortunately runs into the emergency brake linkage. A setback, but more on that later.

My install started with removing my drivers seat to access the hole that passes through the underside of the van. Pulled the heater and pump side of the wiring to where I'd be mounting the heater through the hole. Having to had extend the wiring, I needed to cut the wiring to the controller and was easily able to pull the wiring through the existing rubber grommet.

Pulled the controller wiring through this portion of the carpet.

And up to the dash.

Here's the wiring coming out on the underside of the van. I had an existing fuel line coming from my fuel tank for a previously installed hyrdonic heater plumbed in to the rear heater core. The heater worked fine, but wasn't very fast or efficient plumbed into that location. At any rate, I had fuel plumbed into the fuel tank. The kit comes with a tee to tap into an existing diesel fuel line.

I went ahead with plumbing the heat into the rear heater core housing as others have. Using a 3' hole saw, i cut hole in the plastic hosing.

I cut the 3 way that comes with the kit to glue into the rear heater housing using some ABS/PVC cement. I riveted some light aluminum sheeting to the upper piece to give it addition air deflection away from the rear heater core.

You can see from the inside, some of the aluminum attached to my coupler.

Because of my sliding door issue on my heater housing, I ended up mounting it at an angle, in order to clear the emergency brake linkage. Otherwise, I would have mounted it more square. I mounted the box to the flats of the cross members.
Also, due to the limited aluminum scrap I had, I wasn't able to create enough interior space to also mount the fuel pump. So I've mounted it to the outside. I did later, rivet a small piece of aluminum to the front of the box to deflect air from pump. Air duct also routed to the rear heater housing. Combustion intake, exhaust, and wiring tidied up.

On a final note, I didn't plumb in a heated air intake from the van inside air. I think the complication is that the intake side of the heater is not set up to connect to the 3" ducting that comes with the heater. It's a threaded cap with wide mesh. Maybe 3 1/2". A ducting for that side would need to be sourced or modications to the intake side will need to be made.
I did an intitial test just in the driveway and the heater is a flamethrower. So it heats fine. I did find that despite my deflection in the rear heater hosing, the heat still made it's way out of the rear heater intake opening in the step of the van, but not very much. I haven't had a chance to practically use it yet, but it's installed and ready to go.
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93 Weekender TDI conversion (AHU)
93 MV TDI conversion (1Z)
Weekender rear cot
Late model cabin air filter on 93
Euro spec bumper install on 93

[Zeitgeist 13]

Nice job. Our installs are nearly identical...except my intake/exhaust is on the passenger side. I've read that it's ok to mount the units on their side, but only if the glow plug is above the burner chamber. I have no idea if this is true, so I'll be curious to hear how yours performs over time.
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[Joshwa]

I watched a couple videos and see that they mentioned that you could mount it sideways with the glow plug on the higher side. Looks like I mounted it on the lower side. I'll pull the heater out at the end of summer and see what the glow plug and atomizer look like. If its bad, I may need to go back and flip my housing. I almost did that when I saw my sliding door was an issue. Had I flipped the housing and had the sliding door on the outward side of the van. I wouldn't have any contact issues. Live and learn on a $125 experiment.

One thing I failed to mention, that seems to catch most, is that they power to the controller is constant. So the controller is always on. You can't just turn off the screen. I wired in a switch/relay to the main power. So it's either on or off completely. I won't be able to save any timers, but it also won't be drawing power while i'm not using it. I think I read that it would take 2-3 weeks to drain a battery if it were just parked if you otherwise have it powered all the time. This is not likely an issue for most people who use their vans for more than camping.
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93 Weekender TDI conversion (AHU)
93 MV TDI conversion (1Z)
Weekender rear cot
Late model cabin air filter on 93
Euro spec bumper install on 93

[Broseph Stalin]

Congrats to both of you. I know I'd be miserable without an aux furnace. The '67 Westy had a Southwind furnace that ran off of the fuel tank so I knew when getting back into VW poptops an aux furnace was something good.
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'68 Bus in West Germany, 1977-1979
'67 Riviera poptop conversion in the US, 1984-1990
'95 EVC Winnie, 2018, Sold
'03 EVC Winnie, 2018, Sold

[Zeitgeist 13]

I still need to wire in that power kill switch. I don't understand why they didn't just add a simple switch into the controller. Dumb.
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[Joshwa]

Since I had time on my hands like we all do right now, I took some time to rearrange my box to house the heater so the glow plug is oriented towards the top of the heater instead of the bottom. This gets my sliding door facing towards the outside of the drivers side of the van now. So easier maintenance there.

My exhaust is pointed out towards the sliding door side now though. I suppose if its a problem, I can route it more directly towards the rear. Just trying to keep it as far from the heated air intake as possible. Hard to see, but I was able to make a better deflector to protect the fuel pump.

_________________
93 Weekender TDI conversion (AHU)
93 MV TDI conversion (1Z)
Weekender rear cot
Late model cabin air filter on 93
Euro spec bumper install on 93

[Zeitgeist 13]

When the weather improves a bit I'll have to crawl under mine to take some pics. Our installs are remarkably similar in plumbing and location. I still need to tidy up the wiring and overall appearance of the packaging, but it's performed exceptionally well every time we've used it so far.
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[Joshwa]

My wiring was perfect until I flipped the exhaust and intake. Now it just runs through the back opening. Other thing is to stuff something around the outgoing heated air hole in my box to keep kicked up water from going straight into the box. It has plenty of drain holes if it does though.
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93 Weekender TDI conversion (AHU)
93 MV TDI conversion (1Z)
Weekender rear cot
Late model cabin air filter on 93
Euro spec bumper install on 93

[slorider02]

Joshwa,
I'm wondering how you secured the box you made.
Thanks

[Joshwa]

The metal that supports the floor flares out. I drilled 6mm holes in the flared out metal and bolted the box up through those holes.
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93 Weekender TDI conversion (AHU)
93 MV TDI conversion (1Z)
Weekender rear cot
Late model cabin air filter on 93
Euro spec bumper install on 93

[bcolins]