Rear Heater Delete question (1 Viewer)

[Crossthreaded]

Hi y'all - I'm planning to remove the rear heater and heat shield the whole area under the passenger seat and console, which I measured at 240°F in a recent trip through Colorado. I've ordered the delete kit from @LandCruiserPhil. I understand the hose replacement under the hood but I'm confused about the coolant lines. Do I cap them off, install a u-shape hose to connect them where they used to go into the heater, or just cut them off and try to drain whatever fluid is in there? Thanks!

 

[CharlieS]

They don't need any special treatment. I capped mine with some rubber caps on the firewall side, but it was purely aesthetic. Once you remove the heater and loop the front line under the hood with that hose you linked, the lines from the firewall will be like a bridge to nowhere and will drain on their own. Keep in mind you'll have a nice sized hole in the floor under the passenger seat to cover from where the hoses used to enter the cabin.

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

I cut them off and forgot about them. I only remember it used to have one when I am underneath and wonder what that pair of rusty lines goes to.

 

[Hornd]

Be Very Careful with the Nipples at the Firewall. The Brass is Thin.
I used a Pliers to turn the Hose off the Nipple and Ovaled the Fittings.
I was able to make them round again, but it surprised me.

 

[Outsane]

I would leave the heat shields in. There is a lot of heat coming from the exhaust and catalytic converters.

 

[Crossthreaded]

Thanks everyone- super helpful. I have the delete hose kit from @LandCruiserPhil showing up today and will post some pix.

Massive heat from the cats and exhaust, which is why I started this. I’ve cover the area above the cat and headers down to the muffler with DEI heat shield. Also covered the hole for the rear heater with HVAC tape, two layers of heat shield and a metal cover. Before starting all this I got a thermometer reading of 240°F on the insulated area under the passenger seat. I’ll test again after the delete is finished. Sound deadening is next. Never ends.

 

[JoeCova]

Wits End had a cool plate before he decided not to deliver Turbos and got sued. The delete was the best thing I did, also gave me room to stuff air lines and such under the seat

 

[duece71]

I just did a rear heater delete last weekend and pulled all of the rear heater hoses out. I had to cut both rear heater lines in multiple places to get them out but they are out. I haven’t gotten to the rear heater core yet, ran out of time. Some of the hard lines were rusted pretty bad and the rubber hose components were rock hard.

 

[Crossthreaded]

I finished this last night. I ordered the full replacement kit from Land Cruiser Products (@LandCruiserPhil) on Thursday and it got to New Mexico on Monday - that's three days faster than Amazon Prime. Once you see the tubing it becomes obvious what to do. This is what it looked like before the delete (the PO replaced the hoses with these pretty nice green ones, so these aren't stock)

The longgreen tube on the bottom is the coolant return, and that intermediate piece is a T that draws from the rear heater. The top curved green tubing is the coolant feed. At the bottom of the feed curve it connects into a metal piece with a channel to the rear heater and the main coolant channel. The main channels run through the firewall and the rear heater channels both run down along the firewall. Getting the hose assemblies out is a pain as some of the clamps are hard to reach (and in my case a couple of corroded and broken ones to pry out.) Not complicated, just fiddly.

This is what it looks like after the delete kit install:

You can see the open tubes for the rear heater underneath the return hose and inside the curve of the fitted hose. This is the stuff I took out:

The T fitting on the left is from the return channel and the metal tube with two exits on the right is from the main coolant feed. I cut out the last couple of feet of the metal tubing underneath the truck leading up to the rear heater as they were corroded and also in the way of a heat shielding project I am working on. If anyone wanted to reinstall the heater in my truck they'd just have to run some new lines.

As for the hole under the passenger seat where the tubing came up: I sealed top and bottom with high temp aluminum tape and put DEI heat shield underneath. I took a metal plate for an octagonal single gang outlet ($3 from Lowes or Home Depot), put some more heat shield on the bottom and used a couple of sheet metal screws to secure it over the hole. A few days ago I measured the temperature of the floor next to the hole at 247°F after 15 miles on the highway. Today it was 144°F after a long drive.

 

[Kernal]

The green hose looks like GATES Durion??

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Nicely done!