home made heat exchangers?

[Cheeky V]

Hi folks! I'm fed up of being cold in the camper, I installed a propex heater a couple of months ago which is great! until you run out of gas and have to get more.
i saw some photos of someones heat exchangers and noticed the fins inside, there exactly what i have on my exhaust so i think someone has just removed the outer casing.

what I'm really after is some photos or even better some diagrams so i can start to fabricate the outer casing of the fins, its going to take me a while as I'm new to welding and even newer to shaping and beating but I thought why the heck not give it ago! (yes i am a little crazy )

[Dazco]

I hope you are gonna take lots of pics of the project.

[johnfevs]

I've got 2 old ones sat in my garden, that I removed recently. They are pretty rusted but you can see what should be there. If you are near Bristol, you can have them for templates. Just message me.

[Cheeky V]

Dazco, absolutely!

johnfevs that would be awesome! I'm in Essex but i'm sure I can convince the other half to take a weekend break to come pick them up, i'll drop you a pm cheers mate!

[jason k]

"cock" it up and you'll be pumping carbon monoxide into the cab! New ones aren't too juicy and good second hand ones are about too! Me I wouldn't be risking anything else,

[Cheeky V]

I agree but I do have enough equipment to do a pressure/leak test on the exhaust section and carbon monoxide alarms are not that expensive

[johnfevs]

As long as the exhaust part does not leak, the outer shell of the exhanger is only tin. There is a good artical on a beetle site that tells how to insulate the heat exhangers and pipework to avoid heat loss, just do a search for T25 heat exhanger repairs. Here are a couple of others that list how they work.

http://www.vw-resource.com/heat4.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/freemefromth ... eating.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Cheeky V]

So I made the trip to Bristol and back yesterday in beautiful sunny weather! I shall make a start on this asap and will keep you upto date with photos photos
once I've stopped the rain in side Cheeky V

[CovKid]

Is dooable. I did it on a 2ltr Aircooled in the mid 90s. Worked fine.

[Cheeky V]

considering using stainless for them, any objections?

(never welded with it before so will have to practice first!)

[Cheeky V]

So after months of body work I can finally make a start on these!

I have neither the control pods or the heat risers so shall be making these too (without control pods, will just remove the heat riser pipes for the summer or open the windows)

Just wondering if anyone has any photos of where and how they join together to flow through the big bit of ducting to the front?

Will be doing the whole lot out of stainless so fingers crossed I can pick up welding the stuff quickly

[BOXY]

The pictures aren't too good, but his one is the manifold the main front to back ducting connects to in front of the engine.



The risers and pods attach to this manifold with two pieces of flexi PVC ducting that originally had some sort of filtration built in. The yellow outline is the manifold.



I ditched my risers & pods and fitted silicone ducting that gets connected once the temperature starts to drop.

[Cheeky V]

Take it you've had no problems with the silicon?

[bigherb]

The manifold fitted

[Cheeky V]

Thanks bigherb very helpful!

take it that manifolds not reproduced by anyone?