Circulating heater install on 1HDT
- Thread starter finderscuba
- Start date
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heres a couple pics from my phone hopefully u can see what i did. the block drain is located above the engine mount just below and to the front of the oil filter. I just opend the drain and used a hose clamp to attach the supply hose rather than messing around down there, its a pretty tight space. to mount the heater i used all-around bolted to a strip of flat steel then drilled a hole and mounted the whole unit to the inside of the shock tower. keeping it nice and low. hope this helps.
Well, it's not a zerostart, if that's a specific brand. but it heats water, and only circulates on convection method.
Input on the heater is drawn from the cab heater.
output goes to the nearby port with the thermostat.
i guess the thing is to get enough hot water flow UP and enough cold water DOWN to get the convection method working.
If that cant be done, you should source a inline hose pump from a camping supplier, i know they use that kind of stuff on propane heated water in trailers and campers.
- Thread starter
- #64
Yours sounds more like an inline heater. The heater we're talking about is a bit different.
Sounds promising, Canadian Tire has a 1500w zero start on sale for $66 and change until the 26th here in B.C.
how is your install going? i just finally finished mine. After about 2 hours of trying i realized i had no room to mount on the shock tower since i have the steering shaft in the way. I ened up mounting it even lower down on the frame rail using the bolts that hold the brake line to the frame. It seems to be working great at the moment. I can see a few little bubbles coming up but hopefully it bleeds itself off. Had to run the truck for a bit to get all the air out.
I will let everything cool off overnight and then turn it on in the morning and see what happens. Had to stop testing because i kept blowing the fuse in the plug for some reason.. ill have to check for leaks and short circuits in the morning
I will let everything cool off overnight and then turn it on in the morning and see what happens. Had to stop testing because i kept blowing the fuse in the plug for some reason.. ill have to check for leaks and short circuits in the morning
- Thread starter
- #67
Life got in the way. I'll be working on this today.
Did you change any of the connections? Out just lower the heater? I'm going to try just lowering the heater and using the block drain
Did you change any of the connections? Out just lower the heater? I'm going to try just lowering the heater and using the block drain
All my connections are still the same. I did some testing this morning and it seems to be working, i have a 10 degree temp increase in the heater core outlet hose that goes to the block so it seems fluid is moving. This was only after 5 minutes or funning it.
I am still using the block drain, i have lowered the whole system so now the inlet to the zerostart is about 3 inches below the block drain. At the top i am still going into the inlet of the heater core but i swapped out the T i was using and am using the supplied Y.
If you want i can post up some pics, for you mounting it on the shock tower should do the trick.
Before i had about 4 inches of rise coming out of the zero start into the heater core hose. Now i have about 1.5 feet of riseing straight up.
- Thread starter
- #69
Just finished reworking mine. Now using the block drain, and mounted with the inlet about two inches below the drain. About twelve inches of rise. I haven't tried the heater yet. I just finished getting the air out. I'll post tomorrow.
- Thread starter
- #70
I think we have success!
After 5 minutes the hose from the heater cores to the engine was very warm.
After 1 hour all the hoses were hot including the upper rad hose. I turned on the key and watched the temperature gauge go to normal operating temp!
Granted, the ambient here in Winnipeg is an unseasonal -5°C. But the old rad hose heater never put this much heat in the coolant.
We'll see how well it does when it gets colder again.
To sum up:
remove the block drain and screw in the fitting included with the heater
mount the heater as low as possible secured to the shock tower
run 5/8 heater hose from the block drain to the inlet of the heater
insert the supplied "y" fitting into the top of the vertical hose running from the engine to the water control valve on the firewall
run 5/8 heater hose from the heater outlet to the "y"
burp all the air out of the system
set heater control to "hot" before operating the circulating heater
After 5 minutes the hose from the heater cores to the engine was very warm.
After 1 hour all the hoses were hot including the upper rad hose. I turned on the key and watched the temperature gauge go to normal operating temp!
Granted, the ambient here in Winnipeg is an unseasonal -5°C. But the old rad hose heater never put this much heat in the coolant.
We'll see how well it does when it gets colder again.
To sum up:
remove the block drain and screw in the fitting included with the heater
mount the heater as low as possible secured to the shock tower
run 5/8 heater hose from the block drain to the inlet of the heater
insert the supplied "y" fitting into the top of the vertical hose running from the engine to the water control valve on the firewall
run 5/8 heater hose from the heater outlet to the "y"
burp all the air out of the system
set heater control to "hot" before operating the circulating heater
Good stuff! I'm sure I can apply the lessons learned here to my own install as well, thanks for documenting.
good to hear you finally had success! it sounds like the 1500Watt is the way to go, i have the 1000Watt and it sounds like its not quite getting as hot as yours. It could also be of course that my heater core is plugged because mine doesnt get up to opearating temps. but it does get warm
- Thread starter
- #73
We'll call it a complete success after a -35°C test.
i just tried mine again and the heat doesnt seem to come out of the heater core. I see bubbles coming into my Y.... do you still see these aswell? What did you do to bleed off your air from the coolant?
- Thread starter
- #75
A few bubbles still, yes. This morning, the hose from the heater core was only slightly warm, but everything else was hot. Truck started instantly like a summer day. Temp gauge went almost to operating, then slowly dropped while the engine idled. It came back up quickly and I had heat within minutes.
I'll continue to burp the air out.
To burp the air, I ran the engine with the front end on ramps and the rad cap off. I just kept revving the engine and then adding more coolant as it warmed up. Eventually no more air came out. I saw no air pocket in the white "y" like I did before. Also, squeezing the upper rad hose, and the heater hoses can work some of the air out too.
1500W may be overkill, but there is 12L of coolant in the system.
hows it working out for ya? I ended up just plugging mine in and didnt play with it in the evening at all, it ended up being pretty warm, and heated up quickly today... probably still have air bubble problems but they take about 3 hours to build up and then clear out when i run it.
- Thread starter
- #77
Mine is still working well. I had to change my timer to reduce preheat time to 1 hour instead of 3. But the ambient is still fairly mild. Only -20°C yesterday and supposed to go up to +3°C today.
Temp gauge is up when I go to start it. Only issue I've noted is performance of the heater while I'm at work. They use a parking lot controller that limits the power draw and also cycles on and off. This is supposed to be temperature dependent. Some times the temp gauge goes up, sometimes it doesn't. Depends on when in the cycle I hop in. I'll have to ask about the power limiting function. I'm sure if I tell them I have a 1500W heater they'll flip. But I'll just rebut with "it's a diesel".
But this thing definitely works waaaaaaaay better than a rad hose heater!
Temp gauge is up when I go to start it. Only issue I've noted is performance of the heater while I'm at work. They use a parking lot controller that limits the power draw and also cycles on and off. This is supposed to be temperature dependent. Some times the temp gauge goes up, sometimes it doesn't. Depends on when in the cycle I hop in. I'll have to ask about the power limiting function. I'm sure if I tell them I have a 1500W heater they'll flip. But I'll just rebut with "it's a diesel".
But this thing definitely works waaaaaaaay better than a rad hose heater!
Just want to add my 2 cents here.
I did this same install on a 2L-TE and used the engine drain plug in the same way. It worked perfectly.
I think that a couple things need to happen in order for it to work:
You need to get rid of all the air, because the circulation heater works on the capillary action of water. Basically, if you get a big enough air bubble in the hose, you won't have flow because you need a constant column of water for it to circulate. It's the same principle as when you are siphoning fluid and get an air bubble and the siphon stops working. Another source of the air bubbles is loose connections. As the hot water in the column rises, it creates a type of vacuum effect, drawing cold water into the heater and then warming it. If the connections aren't tight enough, it will draw air in through the connections.
Now, I'm trying to install one of these on a 1KZ-TE and having a terrible time because I think the flow in the 1KZ-TE is different based on the fact that the thermostat is placed on the lower rad hose, rather than the upper rad hose, and thus the coolant flows differently. If anyone has tried this on a 1KZ-TE and it was successful, please inform me as I've tried a bunch of combinations, with very little success.
I did this same install on a 2L-TE and used the engine drain plug in the same way. It worked perfectly.
I think that a couple things need to happen in order for it to work:
You need to get rid of all the air, because the circulation heater works on the capillary action of water. Basically, if you get a big enough air bubble in the hose, you won't have flow because you need a constant column of water for it to circulate. It's the same principle as when you are siphoning fluid and get an air bubble and the siphon stops working. Another source of the air bubbles is loose connections. As the hot water in the column rises, it creates a type of vacuum effect, drawing cold water into the heater and then warming it. If the connections aren't tight enough, it will draw air in through the connections.
Now, I'm trying to install one of these on a 1KZ-TE and having a terrible time because I think the flow in the 1KZ-TE is different based on the fact that the thermostat is placed on the lower rad hose, rather than the upper rad hose, and thus the coolant flows differently. If anyone has tried this on a 1KZ-TE and it was successful, please inform me as I've tried a bunch of combinations, with very little success.
- Thread starter
- #79
The thermostat in the 1hdt is in the lower rad hose too.
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Installed the Zerostart 750w circulation heater on my 1HDT in November and it was quite a simple install. I drained the block, removed the factory drain and threaded the supplied fitting. I mounted the heater using the supplied strap to the frame rail, rear of my engine mount. The inlet to the heater is probably 6 inches below the engine drain so it is definitely feeding water. From there i just tapped into the cab heater hose as others have done. It hasn't been super cold here but on a -10 night i have it timed to turn on 2 hours before work and the truck starts great. I have opened the hood to check the heater hose that comes out of the cab and it has been nice and warm. Good circulation happening. Hopefully when it goes to -20 overnight it will be just as good. Should maybe have gone for the higher wattage of heater. It would also be good to purchase a longer power cord as the one that comes with is only like 16".
Thanks to those that have tried this also and posted about it.
Thanks to those that have tried this also and posted about it.