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Old 12-26-2015, 03:36 PM   #1 (permalink)
pletby
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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My Civic - '00 Honda Civic DX
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Circulating Tank Heater Install in 2000 Honda Civic

Thought I'd start a new thread for this as I didn't have much luck searching for successful installs in a Honda Civic.

The heater is a 1000 Watt Circulating Tank Heater that needs to be low in the engine bay to work properly. I first installed it too high and the circulation did not occur. Then I installed it very low (bottom of tank slightly below the bottom of the rad actually) with a nice gradual rise to the heater core with no dips and it seems to work great.

I did not follow the instructions where they said to splice into the lower rad hose as a supply for the heater. I simply put the heater in between the engine and the heater core, but with long hoses to the heater location. So far this is working ok, and removes the radiator from the circulation loop.

So to simplify, coolant flows from engine to circulating tank heater to heater core, to engine.

It's possible to replace the heater hose where it comes out of the block under the distributor without removing the distributor, but it is a tight spot. Remove the air intake and it's doable. The rest is pretty easy to get to.

Do tighten your hose clamps after a few runs. Do bleed air from your system more than one time to make sure you have it all out. Do check your connections for leaks often for the first few weeks. Do monitor your coolant temperature to detect possible leaks. There, that should help prevent most failures.

Here's a graph of Temperature vs Time I did this morning. The weather has cooled off to normal temperatures now. Ambient temperature was -11F. It's been a warm Fall/Winter until now.

Edit: The Blue line is the coolant temperature at the sensor location (near the thermostat) and the Red line is the coolant temperature after 30 seconds of idle to circulate the warmed coolant to the sensor.

Pics of install to follow.


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Last edited by pletby; 12-29-2015 at 09:50 PM.. Reason: more info
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