Heaters

["John Jaranson" <jjaranso@ford.com>]

List -

In response to the recent thread on heaters, the auxiliary heat system from
Barney's is actually not an extra heater, but it does put a recirculation loop
in the heating system.  Sooo, instead of pulling cold air in from the outside
and trying to heat it up by passing it through the heat exchangers on the
engine and then sending it into the car, the Barney's system actually pulls air
from behind the back seat with a blower and routes it through the firewall
(this is bug talk) and directly to the heat exchangers and then back into the
car.  This in theory heats the car up faster and keep it warmer.  ( This all
assumes that the rest of the heating system is in good shape.  Are your  heater
channels rusted out?)  It does nothing to the cooling system from the engine,
in fact it may help because you are no longer pulling cooling air from the
engine fan to heat the passenger compartment.  Of course if you have the heat
on, cooling the engine is usually not a problem :-)  Putting this system in a
T3 could be a bit trickier with our unique fan system and rear floor, but
should be possible.

I agree with Toby E. that the oil cooler in the car system is more trouble than
it is worth.

You could always do like my father did with his Baja bug back in the 70's.  He
kept an old burner from a gas stove on the passenger side floor and a 10lb LP
tank in the rear luggage space.  Kept the car warm on those
-30 F Minnesota mornings and he could heat his lunch at the same time.  He
actually did this, but I would not seriously recommend this option.

Living in Michigan, I will be revamping my heating system if I ever get my car
back here from NY.  I have sketched some plans for a system similar to the
Barney's but I will be rerouting the heater channels down the center of the
car.  Not in the tunnel, but in a custom center console that covers the tunnel.
 If anyone is interested I could send you some of the sketches.

By the way some of Dad's friends used to run the gas heaters,  They definitely
kept you warm, but killed your gas mileage.

Just some thoughts........