Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Hello All,

I know a few people have gotten diesel heaters installed and am just wondering how they have been holding up? Also what kind of price tag should I be looking at to get one installed and what type of shop should I go to?

I am looking to warm the engine and maybe do one that also warms the cabin, not fully sure depending on the cost. It is probably gonna be another frigid year in winterpeg and the plug ins at my work don't always work. I also go to some remote areas during the winter time so the cost to me is totally worth having a nice warm engine rather then cold starting at -40.

Thanks,

Russell

This critter seems to suit the smaller vehicle platform like the Delica.

http://www.webasto.com/us/markets-produ ... pro-50-eco/

Apparently a few people have done it, but I have not seen any installation details.

Basically you want a diesel hydronic. Both the Smallest Espar and Webasto Hydronics would work great. I have seen other military types on Craigslist, but my understanding is that they require more installation troubles.

The most experienced shops will be ones specializing in marine mechanics as they do these installs often.

Your best bet would be to look up Espar dealers and give them a call to find out what the install would cost. I would guess it would be $2000.00 all in, but that is a guess.

I wanted to get one, but the high cost and associated install headaches have got me pretty de motivated. That and the fact i have tolerate/hate relationship with my van. The love is almost dead... almost.

I've installed several hydronic heaters on boats it's pretty simple , the biggest issue is the need for large battery banks to run them.
I used to take an old diesel camper up skiing , I installed an oil pan heater and would carry my Yamaha generator along , if starting was hard I would run the generator and plug in the block and pan heaters for 20 min , worked great.

Well after talking to a few install places, I am deciding against it. I was hoping for around $2500 or less and that is definitely not an option. I think I will try to pick one up this spring and do it over the summer for next. It can't be that hard to install.

I bought my Espar on ebay for a really good price. I admit I got lucky.. and it seems that prices have gone up a couple hundred bucks lately.

I'm just installing it now and hopefully, if it all goes well, I 'll post some pics later next week.

Pictures would be great. I'd love to see how you installed it.

vstrom wrote:I bought my Espar on ebay for a really good price. I admit I got lucky.. and it seems that prices have gone up a couple hundred bucks lately.

I'm just installing it now and hopefully, if it all goes well, I 'll post some pics later next week.

I second this. Lots of pics please!

A post of this nature is sure to get lots of attention!

It's in and it works! Pretty sweet little unit.. sounds abit like a jet engine starting up.

I might be able to get some pics up tomorrow.

I'm not going to plug the van in Wednesday night to see how well it warms the engine in the morning. They're calling for it to be -35 or so.

vstrom wrote:It's in and it works! Pretty sweet little unit.. sounds abit like a jet engine starting up.

I might be able to get some pics up tomorrow.

I'm not going to plug the van in Wednesday night to see how well it warms the engine in the morning. They're calling for it to be -35 or so.

I am so looking forward those photos!

Ok.. so I promised pictures. I took a whole bunch but unfortunately the majority didn't come out too well. I blame the camera and not the operator.
These should be good enough to get the gist of what I did..

My goal when installing this heater was to leave the van as stock as possible which is one of the reasons I decided that the fuel pickup will be sunk into my extra tank. I also didnt feel like dropping that huge tank so I drilled thru the side.
If I were to put the fuel pickup on the stock tank, I think I'd do it here at what I think is the fuel gauge sender.
Here's the pickup installed. I bent the fuel pickup (it's a 2ft long brass tube about 1/4 inch thick.. ill put a picture up later) about 30 deg down, near the elbow. It slopes down to near the bottom of the tank.
I finally decided on a location for it.. right above the tranny's rear (don't google that). I drilled through the floor and bolted the mount on. Used lock-tight on the treads.
I initially was going to make a box for the heater and not use it's supplied mount. It's mount is more designed for against a frame with the heater vertical, not flat like mine. But there is no room to put it like that, and I didn't have time to fart around making something, so I'm hoping for the best. Once I got it on I gave it a couple of good tugs and it seems very secure.
I had a picture of this area prior to me rearranging everything. Hopefully the labels clear things up abit.
So first I drained the coolant. Then I followed the lines around and figured out how everything flows. The coolant flows from the left hand side of the engine (looking at it from the drivers seat) near the rear. I travels to my picture and splits.. some to the front heater core and some to the rear heater core. Now, there's a few different ways to install the Espar.. I choose to install it in-line for simplicity. Basically, the espar takes the place of the engine for heating the coolant. It also means that I didn't have to cut any of my coolant lines, just disconnect the one as shown. So the one hose labeled Original comes from the engine to a valve that I put in (basic house hold water valve for pex) to espar-supplied hose and onward to the espar. It returns from the espar via supplied hose to another valve of mine (that's the one you see in this pic) and connects back to the original tube.
Another view of the extra lines and valves running back towards the espar.


More to come later tonight or tomorrow..

Hopefully I'm not confusing things up too much here.

Oh yeh.. forgot to mention that I didnt plug the van in properly last night and didn't notice but I had set the timer for a 40min run prior to me starting her up.

-31 this morning and started fine, even with thicker oil in it.

Photos look great to me!

Really cool that it fired up without the block heater on in such cold weather!

As my plans for my deli are for a ski vehicle, your post gives me hope!

Looking forward to the other photos.

Guess I don't really have many more pics. I'll take a few more tomorrow when I change my oil..

The reason I put the valves in was just in case I ever have a problem with the espar I can close off both valves, disconnect the hose, then re-connect it in its stock position. One day I plan to clean it all up and just put a 'T' fitting in there with just one valve.. but I think this'll work just fine for now.
The lines from the valves go to their corresponding ports on the heater. There is an air bleed screw on the far side of the espar that is pretty hard to get to with the way I've installed it. Had to actually drop the espar and slide it forward enough so I could get my hand with a stubby flathead screwdriver behind it. Slightly awkward and kinda crampy. The fuel line from the pickup just gets secured over/around the stock gas tank to the heater. The exhaust line was run down along the engines' exhaust.

The wiring was easy, which was good because I'm pretty retarded with electricity. The harness was well laid out with LOTS of extra wiring. It hooks up to the battery and you don't have to cut into the stock wiring at all if you don't want to. Came with it's own fuse protection as well.

Right now my rig isn't plugged in and I'll have my heater programmed to start up at 7am.. it should be -34 apparently.. I'll let it run for 2 full hours, which is the max time that can be set, and I'll keep a record of how it does.

I should've taken more pictures.. if there is anything else you guys need a picture of let me know.. I'll be underneath it tomorrow to make sure everything is sound before me and the dogs drive to S'toon on friday.