Heater
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 7:55 pm
As I mentioned elsewhere recently, I'm a wimp as far as driving when it's cold out (it's currently about 2 Celsius here), so I'm wondering if anyone has come up with a heater for their Triking. An electrical one seems out of the question, due to power requirements, and nuclear seems dangerous, so I'm thinking it would have to be something similar to a "regular" car.
I messed around yesterday with some 1/4 O.D. copper pipe yesterday, and it fits between the fins of my 1998 Bassa engine (it is too wide to actually go "into" the fins, but makes good contact when it "almost" in). There are five fin gaps which are unobstructed by the exhaust manifold, plugs, etc., so I'm wondering why I couldn't coil tubing around those five gaps on both cylinder heads, run water (with antifreeze) through, using a small pump, and then through an aluminum finned heat exchanger ($20 on Ebay) with a small fan to help with heat transfer. I'd put the heat exchanger and fan (maybe two) on either side of the steering column, and a small header tank would be required somewhere in the system. Less than $100 and not too difficult - would it work ? would I get enough heat? any potential drawbacks apart from possible 3rd deg. burns on the legs? Would possible differential cooling of the cylinder heads be a problem ?
Any comments, including derogatory ones, are invited.
I messed around yesterday with some 1/4 O.D. copper pipe yesterday, and it fits between the fins of my 1998 Bassa engine (it is too wide to actually go "into" the fins, but makes good contact when it "almost" in). There are five fin gaps which are unobstructed by the exhaust manifold, plugs, etc., so I'm wondering why I couldn't coil tubing around those five gaps on both cylinder heads, run water (with antifreeze) through, using a small pump, and then through an aluminum finned heat exchanger ($20 on Ebay) with a small fan to help with heat transfer. I'd put the heat exchanger and fan (maybe two) on either side of the steering column, and a small header tank would be required somewhere in the system. Less than $100 and not too difficult - would it work ? would I get enough heat? any potential drawbacks apart from possible 3rd deg. burns on the legs? Would possible differential cooling of the cylinder heads be a problem ?
Any comments, including derogatory ones, are invited.