Coolant reroute heater bros: what size restrictor are you using in the heater hose?
 

I currently have an old piece of old fuel hardline as a restrictor in my heater hose system, and the car will not get above 140*f on the highway. What size are you guys using who are not using the mixing manifold?

I'm thinking about killing the heater system all together unless you guys have a better idea.

What reroute are you using, Hustler?

I have something similar to what you are doing (At least what I have a mental picture of what I think you are doing! Heater outlet to post thermostat, right?), and have no problem hitting 190-200 on the highway. What I needed to do was to put a restriction of no larger than 1/8" (Perhaps 3/16", 1/4" was too much though) in the heater hose.

I think your fuel hardline may be too big.

block off part of the radiator. probably the easiest way to do it without having to take stuff off.

water pump | heater port | thermostat | heater return | radiator

I'm really tempted to kill the heater "circuit" all together. It adds a lot of complexity for something I may use once or twice per year if at all. I think the last time I used the heater was January of 2010.

I use nearly identical routing.

The ability to reach operating temp was completely dependent on the heater hose restriction with my setup. I'd lay money your fuel hard line is too large.

I get that, but how small can I go and still have a semi-functional heater...like I asked in the title. If I drop down to a 1/8" ID I don't think the heater core is going to work too well and there will be no point in using it. It would be really slick if we could find a valve that closes at say 160*f for the mixing-manifold. I need to make the "ultimate" reroute and sell it for $200 so all you bastards will buy buy buy and I can get that second yacht.

1/8" (It could be 3/16" as I think about it, but 1/4" gave me the same problems you described) does work for me. It's not the hottest heater ever, but in the middle of winter where I am (Near Canada), it still can get the cabin to 60-70F or so (I don't take a thermometer in my car, so just a guesstimate. I have no problem being in the car for extended periods of time in khaki's and short sleeved shirts.) in below-freezing temps.

How did you make it?

I'm embarassed to admit to my hackjob because it is messy (I don't think I'll ever post my engine bay on MT.net, my work isn't as pretty as everyone else's. It's ugly compared to your build thread, but it works.)

Found two chunks of pipe. One the same diameter as the cursed water plug's blockoff, another the same diameter as the heater hose inlet.

Welded a metal plate between them - well, I guess I welded them onto a metal plate on opposite sides. Took the next size down from 1/4" in my shitty-and-terribly-incomplete drill set to drill a hole in the metal that was then blocking the flow of water.

I will get a picture of the restrictor I made tomorrow. Basically I had an adapter from Begi that would mate 2 of the hoses. I then took it to the hardware store and found a small pipe that fit in it and left some flow, not sure exactly what size. Next I mixed up some jb weld and jb welded the pipe inside of the adapter. After sitting for a few days I installed it and it works fine.

well, you are in texas. I do use my heatercore 2-3 times a year on track for oct/nov/december events.

With the risk of suggesting daft things, add a valve to the restrictor tube?
If the valve have decent adjust-ability (not a ball type), you can tune it as you wish.

This makes me think of the old style heaters with a winter/summer valve that could leak, get stuck, break off etc...
But if the valve is in the engine compartment, the leakage will not be on you feet at least.

Removing it and replace with an electrical heater could be one project, it would make the coolant installation cleaner (just tune the bypass hole in the t-stat). You rarely need it to keep the cabin toasty at below freezing I guess.

My 5.0 explorer has an in-line valve on the heater feed line. Factory part, and likely not specific to just the explorer, so shouldn't be hard to find in a junkyard. The valve is very simple and vacuum actuated. It closes off some flow to the heater core when the motor is cold. You could control it with a solenoid--like any of the emissions solenoids that I'm sure you've already pulled off the car-- to turn flow on/off at a certain temp. Or if you have a spare PWM output, you could even modulate flow to ramp it up with temp.

Geez, that sounds like a great idea actually. I'm going to install one in my turbo car. It has the Bell "race reroute" on it, so warm up time is pretty long when it's really cold out.

teh google was strong today. Looks like it's a $25 part new.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/...1&d=1294422562
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/...1&d=1294422562

I had a moment of clarity last night...pinch the hose/orifice with pliars, lol. Now it warms-up wonderfully.

I removed my heater and just connected both ends with a hose. Since the oil 'cooler' is attached to the rear of the head, just next to where the thermostat goes (with a reroute), there's always flow over the thermostat and the waterpump is not pushing against a wall. Been like that 6K miles without any problems.
Must admit that I like Ben's idea. Might do it just because it's cool (so to speak) ;).

I’m using one of these.

http://www.alamomotorsports.com/pmc/Cat_page14.html

I have -10 AN fittings on all my heater lines including welding AN bungs on an NB aluminum heater core.

The thermostat has two lines going to it and it is plumbed such that if the coolant passing through the heater core doesn’t drop below 180F returning to the engine in the heater core the flow is shut down forcing the flow to go to the radiator instead. I had to replace the wax plug in the oil thermostat to get a lower activation temp. I found the correct size wax plug in a 170F Motostat thermostat from Oreilles.

If you’re not using a heater core at all then just plug the circuit off completely. Nothing bad happens if the coolant doesn’t flow at all with no heater circuit until the main thermostat opens. The water pump still spins and It just comes up to operating temp much faster.

Bob

So..., this is the most recent thread on this topic... better than a new thread ey?

I was running a 180 deg t-stat without reroute, runs around 175-180 on daily cruising, hit 195-200 after a few laps at buttonwillow on an 80 degree ambient day, no biggie.

Finally got around to a reroute, kia neck in the back, rear heater outlet up front. The flaw is that prior to 180 degrees, heater core inlet comes from the front, outlet goes to the mixing manifold. I kept the 180 t-stat so it'd open up flow to the rad sooner this way. I figured having it open sooner would mask any flaws in the small circuit.

However, it's been having trouble reaching up to 175, as it was before. It has gone down to 160 and dropping, and this is on an aftermarket sensor AFTER the t-stat on the hose to the radiator so I know the entire system is running too cool. I thought the t-stat (maybe a year or so old) is stuck open, but then I noticed when I set it to re-circulate, it seems to help bring up the temps a little bit, but still around 165-175... I'm thinking if a restrictor would help, even if I still have the heater core in place.

I have a blank t-stat spacer (similar to the BEGi piece) for the rear if I can ever find someone to machine the lip and tap the holes for me (I already messed up a rear outlet cover trying to tap 3/8" NPT for the 1.6L thermistor) to move the heater inlet to the rear...