Tank type heater problem

[vtec-e]

Originally Posted by orange4boy

I used my face to feel for warm leaks.

Dude...duude! Thats hardcore! I'll have a whole new approach in the morning. Thank you Marcus.

ollie

[vtec-e]

Ok. It was a pain but i got there in the end. Here you can see the heater loosely installed in front of the firewall. Had a major job bleeding the system and there was no heat going to the cabin heater. Turns out there wasnt enough coolant installed. oops! The expansion bottle was full but there didnt appear to be any more coming out of it to fill the system. I removed the top hose to the rad and filled it from there. Didnt require much thankfully.
The pump feeds this heater and it goes into the engine via the cabin heater hot line through a T-piece.

Here is the pump and next to it is a gearbox heater thad i made up with a block of aluminium and a 200W heater element i found at work. It was being scrapped, honestly!!
The pump bracket is made from 2mm stainless. I would have preferred aluminium but couldnt get any.

Here is a close up of the gearbox heater. It clamps onto a rib on the gearbox and is up tight against it. Hopefully this will result in warmer oil at startup.

I have to go to work tonight so i wont be able to test this setup but will tomorrow.

ollie

[vtec-e]

I ran the heating setup for one hour before leaving for work and it hardly warmed the car much. Only got it to 38c. I kinda knew it wouldnt do much but its what i had.

The gearbox heater worked well though. Before installation i filed smooth the mating surface on the heater to improve contact.
The hill down from my house used to have me deccelerating slightly in this cold weather but last night it kept its speed and actually sped up a little in parts. Shifting was smoother and i had 2.7L/100k on the gauge upon parking at work. Result! Thats down (or up..) from the 3 to 3.2L/100k i have been getting lately in this cold weather.

So it worked! But it looks very ugly. I was thinking about the electric prius pump and thought i might ask a few junkyards is they have any. Then hook one up to a small power supply. Should be much tidier than the beast i have currently. As for the heater, i might buy a Kats tank heater or maybe just a 1kw element and make up the tank myself.
Anyone got a prius coolant pump lying around?

ollie

[orange4boy]

Shifting was smoother and i had 2.7L/100k on the gauge upon parking at work. Result! Thats down (or up..) from the 3 to 3.2L/100k i have been getting lately in this cold weather.

Nice

I get between 36 - 42˚C with my 375 watt passive coolant heater. Needs more juice too.

Sorry, no extra ones here. My guess is that they will have the cabin heater pump for sure if they have any scrapped prii. Just be careful how you plumb it because it has a built in one way check valve.

[vtec-e]

Cheers for that. I read that the circuitry in them is more than you'd expect for a pump and that they are also prone to failing due to the one bearing design on the impellor. I believe the 2010 prius has a two bearing approach?

ollie

[orange4boy]

The Inverter coolant pump on the pre 2010 does wear out over time because of the bearing issue and the fact that they run non stop while the ignition is on. I didn't know about the 2010 having a double bearing. Cool. Good luck finding one though.

The cabin heat pump only runs when you need heat and I've never heard of a failure. Don't know about the construction but it's quieter than my inverter pump. Uh-oh.