The weather being what it is, I am getting a bit cold out in the car, without a full screen or heater.

I was prompted by AYoungman's very neat Polo heater installation, but the way I have got stuff installed in front of the scuttle in the engine bay means there wouldn't be much room.

I also did a search and found BenB's descriptin of a heater made with an oil cooler rad.

Thirdly, at the WLM meeting on Sunday James mentioned that his heater was a hole in the footwell, so he gets exhaust heat!

So, I wondered if I could combine some ideas by having something like:

ali box/tubing bracketed near the exhaust, with a little fan (e.g. computer?) at the front to suck in air (from in front of the exhaust to avoid fumes ), then tubing through the footwell or scuttle to warm my feet. I could fit some sort of flap to shut off the tube in the summer.

1. would the exhaust heat up the air enough?

2. would the fan pull enough volume through to make it worth while?

Thanks for comments, or any other ideas for cheap heating (apart from wearing woolly socks)

What about those ceramic heater things I think they sell them on car building solutions don’t know how much heat is kicked out?
Rescued attachment demist2.jpg

I'm not sure about your exhaus idea; the fan isn't going to be as efective as a car heater fan. and I can't see how you can make it look nice.

I would be inclide to plub somting into the cooling system;

either a small oil cooler and a fan or maybe make a heat exhachange using copper u-bends and copper tube to place under your feet.

or maybe electicial heating pad under your feet?

I wouldn't like to have exhaust fumes into the car if there would be a crack or somehting in the exhaust.

But if you want to do it locost, why not use a 12V hairdryer(s)?

The most constant and useable source of heat has to be the coolant system so if you can tap into that with a small oil cooler or similar? Computer fans will not move enough air for you though.

The box around the exhaust idea is very similar to a set up I had on an air cooled 1980 VW Transporter (box shape). It did the job of heating/demisting very well but it did get very 'fumey' in the cabin as others have mentioned. Would have thought the more traditional route is better tbh

Thanks all - that was quick!

Electric heaters: Having searched on here re heating, the general opinionon electric heaters seems to be very negative, so I don't think I want to go in that direction.

Fumes: my plan was to have the air inlet in front of the exhaust so as to avoid any leaked fumes coming in.

Oil cooler - that was BenB's solution, which sounds like it might be the best compromise of heating power vs space.

Fan: how about if I put a car heater fan at the front of my tubing, instead of a computer fan (that was just an idea, as they are small)?

Keep them coming!

yet another idea could be to use the vw beetle exhaust heat exchangers near the manifold, these do get very hot very quickly, far faster than a water system and all they require is a small blower to pull the air through which could be sited anywhere in the engine bay. Due to the quite small bore a feed pipe could come off the main down pipe to heat up the exchanger.

certainly different
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i find 2 pairs of socks, gloves, balaclava, helmet, good coat etc does the trick. You will never be warm all over no matter what heater you install. I find its stopping the wind getting through to your skin is best for keeping hypothermia away.

Cant you get thermal underwear with heater elements in now?

are fumes really an issue in an open air car like the locost?

Also, if you have a leak won't you know about it pretty quickly due to run on bangs when lifting off etc?

Well considering the exhaust ends usually right next to you anyway, probably not...

quote:

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Originally posted by DarrenW
i find 2 pairs of socks, gloves, balaclava, helmet, good coat etc does the trick. You will never be warm all over no matter what heater you install. I find its stopping the wind getting through to your skin is best for keeping hypothermia away.

Cant you get thermal underwear with heater elements in now?

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I know here in the states they sell heated vests (for the Harley Davidson crowd) that you can plug into a 12v cigarette lighter plug.

B

I used to have my footwell top open around the pedals and it was very warm with engine bay heat coming through.

MG Midgets had opening vents in the side of the tunnel you could fit those and pick up the heat from the engine bat again.

Or fit a sliding ally ventilation fitting in the front of the footwell , that would do it.

quote:

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Originally posted by Tralfaz
I know here in the states they sell heated vests (for the Harley Davidson crowd) that you can plug into a 12v cigarette lighter plug.

B

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Wasn't it Tatra who did a small petrol burning heater for the cabin?

quote:

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I used to have my footwell top open around the pedals and it was very warm with engine bay heat coming through.

MG Midgets had opening vents in the side of the tunnel you could fit those and pick up the heat from the engine bat again.

Or fit a sliding ally ventilation fitting in the front of the footwell , that would do it.

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quote:

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Originally posted by bartonp
Wasn't it Tatra who did a small petrol burning heater for the cabin?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Surrey Dave
I used to have my footwell top open around the pedals and it was very warm with engine bay heat coming through.

MG Midgets had opening vents in the side of the tunnel you could fit those and pick up the heat from the engine bat again.

Or fit a sliding ally ventilation fitting in the front of the footwell , that would do it.

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quote:

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Originally posted by James

quote:

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Originally posted by Surrey Dave
I used to have my footwell top open around the pedals and it was very warm with engine bay heat coming through.

MG Midgets had opening vents in the side of the tunnel you could fit those and pick up the heat from the engine bat again.

Or fit a sliding ally ventilation fitting in the front of the footwell , that would do it.

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That's exactly what I have, as mentioned by Humbug above.

I took the horizontal panel out that is above your feet.
I actually did it as an experiment in engine cooling/under bonnet air pressure as my bonnet kept lifting as speed.

Not only did removing it fix the bonet lifting... it means loads of warm air over feet/legs!

To be honest, it's only a temporary measure, I don't want oil or maybe boiling water on my feet!



Humbug,
One of the New Forest crowd had a system maybe you could use. It was a metal tube that ran over the exhast (under bonnet), connected to the nose (to get air) and the cabin by plastic tubing.
Any air that entered the tube at the nose flowed down the plastic pipe then through the metal where it was warmed by the exhaust, then into the cabin.
Seemed quite a neat idea to me. No fumes as the supply is from the front of the car, it's just heat it picks up along the way.

Not sure how effective if was though!

Cheers,
James

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Of course there is always this

linky

which would prob do the trick..

A couple of ideas:
1 Aldi have some seat heating mat things these would keep your bum and back warm.
2 15mm coper plumbing pipe run around the cockpit and fed from engine heater circuit will help, try along outside,return with a loop on the floor under the knees, small and practical installation


Forget the electric heaters they max about 300 watts a car heater at full is 4 to 5 Killowatts. i have left space for a mini heater in the cabin under the dash, I probably won't fit before SVA because of sharp edges. I have a land rover Carawagon that I fitted with a Webasto and small rediators that have two runs of copper held together with aluminium fins, these are too big for a locost but the one under my knees is the best palaced for direct heat while driving. You can strip any car heater for the matrix, a small radiator and use this with any kind of fan to keep footwell area warm, if the air intake is in the footwell rather than from outside it will be more efficient.

Caber

Some people have used a Mini heater they a quite small and self contained

man is that one ugly heater
Rescued attachment heater.jpg

I dont have a cover over my pedal setup(Tiger Cat). It keeps my feet/legs etc nice and warm when the car warms up, at speed I get a good through put of air.It probably helps with the problem of the bonnet lifting.
It might not be the safest of options but I can " smell" any problems. On the way back from the show at Donnington I had a minor leak from one of my hoses and I smelt it! rather quickly ; a lot sooner than seeing steam.
Mike

I beleive the electric heaters being mentioned are really only for demisting windscreens, not interior heating.
The Polo heater is ver small but you could always take the heater matrix out and build your own smaller box round it out of ali sheet. It doesn't need to be as sophisticated as a car one, doesn't even need a fan if you can extract air from the high-pressure zone at the windscreen base, just a box with a feed in, a couple of ducts out and an on/off valve for the water