Ideas On Auxiliary Heating Systems, Using Headers but Want Heat! Options

[MikeInMunich]

Greetings once again from Munich!

It’s cold over here when the sun goes down, not to mention nice days in March, April, October and November. I need heat, and I don’t have it because my engine has headers.

I am thinking I will need a high output alternator if I’m using only 12v in order to get the necessary output.

Is this somehow a bad idea? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

Questions:

How would a e.g. 50 amp alternator affect power and gas mileage?

Would it have any effect on the electrical system?

Can you recommend a heater for this application?

Other suggestions on how to best get heat into the cabin without heat exchangers?

Here is an article on PTC (positive thermal coefficient) heaters...

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.10...-11628-5_51.pdf

Thanks for your feedback and advice!

Mike in Munich
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_flagge6.gif)

[Dave_Darling]

If you're handy at fabrication, you may be able to make some heat exchanger wrapping for your header pipes. As we've seen from Tangerine's similar setup, the output isn't huge amounts of heat, but it's more than good enough to clear your windscreen. And it will be available quickly, unlike heat coming from water-based coolant.

Mueller looked into wrapping tubing around header pipes and pushing glycol through there with an electric pump, but consensus was a lot of work for relatively little benefit. You'd need to wrap the outside of the wrapped pipe with something like header wrap to keep the glycol from cooling off too quickly, and insulate it until it got where you wanted the heat.

Any way you go, you'll need to put some air distribution stuff back into the car. The stock stuff is easy and is known to fit, but you can fake up stuff if you're creative.

--DD