Heater improvement ideas on Series III wanted

Hello again from Brisbane.

Figured that my questions fitted this old post as well as any new one.

Checking over my S3 SWB the other day I noticed that its' heater was disconnected from the engine, and looks to be in poor shape. So, as part of the ongoing restoration plans decided to look into getting it back to operating status - even though I realise that a lot of owners don't think highly of S3 heaters anyway.

Problem #1 is that while I can see where the heater hoses have been disconnected at the heater box end, I don't know where the hoses drew water from the motor or returned it there. Looking through some UK parts catalogues (e.g. Craddocks) there seems to be several hoses and pipes required - but from a general inspection from above the motor, I can't actually see any plugged off hose connecting points in the usually suspected places. Guess I am looking in the worng place because there msut have been a full connection there at some time.

Problem #2 is that my workshop manual (Haynes) is no help because it just refers to the heater box and fan assembly and has no diagram that shows how the whole system works.

Problem #3 is that the description and diagram of the S3 heater box and matrix in the manual and various photos etc in UK parts catalogues seem to refer to a completely different heater box and matrix to the one fitted to my truck......

The next three photos are of the heater box in my truck, the fourth is a UK heater matrix supposedly for a S3 - you can see that the inlets and outlets for the ones in my truck are at the top and bottom of the heater matrix whereas the UK matrix has the two piples located side by side.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...2011/12/65.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...2011/12/66.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...2011/12/67.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...2011/12/68.jpg

From this a few questions please.

First - where are the inlets and outlets located for the heater hoses to and from the heater box on the 4 cylinder 2.25l motor?

Two - is the standard heater unit (box and matrix) fitted to Australian assembled S3s different to that fitted to UK S3s?

Three - is it possible to get reconditioned heater matrices locally of the type that is presumably fitted to my truck as per the photos?

Four - what Land Rover parts are needed to reconnect the circuit between the motor and heater box assembly?

Cheers,

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LWB123

First - where are the inlets and outlets located for the heater hoses to and from the heater box on the 4 cylinder 2.25l motor?

Three - is it possible to get reconditioned heater matrices locally of the type that is presumably fitted to my truck as per the photos?

---

The inlet and outlet on my car are in the same place as yours. Unfortunately, mine is in pieces, so I can't tell you where on the engine they connect to.

If you take your heater core to a radiator re-conditioner, they will tell you what is available.

I have rodded two heater cores in the past by unsoldering the tanks and pushing the muck out of the tubes with a dipstick. You can check to see if yours is blocked, by running water into one of the pipes and seeing if it flows well from the other one,

Cheers Charlie

IMPROVING HEATER PERFORMANCE.
-------------------------------------

Years ago I bought an old s2 landy in the bush and proceeded to drive it the 100km to my home. Within the first 3km she threw a fan belt, but having no spares and being a long way from anywhere I kept going and kept an eye on engine temp.To my surprise, even after 50km on undulating roads in 26degree ambient temperature the engine temp stayed normal despite the water pump not operating, so I just continued on home without issues except for the battery being so discharged that in the last few kms just pressing the horn button would cut power to the ignition coil.
Anyway, aside from airflow through the radiator due to relatively high speed(70kmh) I put the fact that the engine didn't overheat down to the large transfer/bypass hose between the waterpump and cylinder head allowing water circulation through the so called thermosyphon principal, which served many pre 1950's cars before water pumps came into common usage.I am of the opinion that this bypass is the reason that 2.25s warmup time from a coldstart is much longer than most other vehicles, and the reason why Stage One V8s heater performance is much better even though they have the same heater core/box and fan assembly as other series 3s.

When I started using this vehicle for the daily 40km each way commute during Melbourne winter, and finding the heater/ demister performance inadequate to keep warm and the windscreen clear, I decided to place a restricter (1/2'' hole) inside the bypass hose and this made a huge difference to heater performance.
I removed the restrictor for 4wheel driving during the warmer months, although for commuting I'm not sure that was strictly necessary either.
Bill.

Top tip Bill!

Thanks for sharing it with us - in fact all of your tips are well-worth considering,

Cheers Charlie

my old series 3 diesel ute was far warmer and ran signficantly better with the mechanical fan removed. Think of Orange in a good frost and 29km to work!

I put on an electric radiator fan with manual switch in case I was stuck in traffic but very rarely used it. Performance was a bit better but sometimes hard to tell.

Keep in mind some of these vintage vehicles used to use a radiator muff which cut off just about all the airflow.

Removing the fan also takes a resonable amount of noise out of the system and allows you to hear all the other shake, rattle and roll rumbles. For something like commuting not in traffic you coud run without it except in the two weeks of melbourne's summer......

dromader driver.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LWB123

First - where are the inlets and outlets located for the heater hoses to and from the heater box on the 4 cylinder 2.25l motor?

Cheers,

---

Hi LWB123,

There are two heater connections on the engine. One is just to the left of the thermostat housing at the front of the engine and the other is at the back on top of the head just above the exhaust manifold. The top hose runs from the front of the engine to the top connection with the valve. A very short host runs from the valve to the top of the heater element and the bottom hose is from the bottom of the heater element to the back of the head.

I don't know if you can buy the hoses here in Oz but they are available in the Uk I am sure but I just bought a couple of metres of the right diameter hose from Autobahn and fitted it up with new clamps. You can buy shaped pieces of base and I just cut a right angle out of one of those for the short piece to the valve. Took a while to get the valve working properly but now it seems to do the job.

Can't help with where you can get the right element from unfortunately as mine was ok and I got a spare one from some friends.

Hope that helps a bit.

Cheers,

TimJ.

I was dismantling an earlier series 2a engine yesterday, and discovered that it was fitted with the older style Bellows thermostat.The body of these actually appear, when cold, to restrict the flow of water from the waterpump bypass to the cylinder head more effectively than modern thermostats, and possibly might improve warm up times and heater performance.
I wonder if they are still available? They look expensive compared to later types, but have the advantage in that when they eventually die, they die open not shut.
Bill.

Hi LWB123,

Not sure if you have found things yet but I was doing some work on mine yesterday and took a couple of photos with the phone while I was there.

These are the heater hoses on mine -

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/06/207.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/01/1186.jpg

That might help a little more as you can actually see where they are connected.

Cheers,

TimJ.

Hello Timj,

I was just about to PM you to see if you might have a photo - so this was extremely timely. Thanks.

I did locate the two outlet points on the thermostat and head as you kindly pointed out - these were both sealed with no sign of ever having had a heater connected. My guess is that the truck might be a 1975 SWB, but that the engine could well have come from another older Land Rover that never had a heater.

I was checking out hose and connector options at Repco earlier today, much along the lines of your suggestion of Autobarn. From that I should be able to get something commissioned that is not too far from what might be expected under a Series 3 bonnet.

Cheers,

Is it possible to fit a heater out of a Defender?

LRT