Webasto heater install continued:
Next up is work on the exhaust. When I bought this heater it can with a section of flexible exhaust hose. In this picture you can see it laying between the black hot air ducting and fuel pump.
The section I have is too short for what I want to do and a new hose is around $30. Pretty steep price for a piece of thin flexible metal hose. For a cheaper alternative I'm going to use 3/4" steel electrical conduit (EMT).
I'll also be using one of these. It's called a Eberspächer/Espar Exhaust Silencer. I call it a muffler.
Normally these mufflers don't come with the curved tubing on each end. This particular muffler came with a Eberspächer Hydronic heater I bought on ebay UK. Got a killer deal on the heater.
Unfortunately, according to a email I later received from a Detective Constable from the Serious Crime Team of the Bedfordshire Police (UK)
there's a possibility the heater was stolen from GM Motors in Luton. So I'm assuming the curved bits are needed when installing this muffler into whatever type of vehicles they make at the GM factory in Luton. By the way the Detective Constable wrote that they didn't want the heater back. Just the serial number.
Planned out how I wanted to route the exhaust from the heater and didn't need the curved bits on the muffler so cut them off. The cutting off of both ends is
Mistake 1, but I'll come back to that.
Here's the funny bit. I've had the muffler for months waiting for when I got around to this project. So I cut the ends off the muffler then the
very next day I get the email from the Bedfordshire Police. Good thing they didn't want it back.
The original idea was to use the flexible hose to connect the heater exhaust to the muffler then use electrical conduit on the other end of the muffler. The flexible exhaust hose and the cut ends of the muffler both have an Outside Diameter (OD) of 22mm = 0.87". The electrical conduit is 3/4" Inside Diameter (ID) but has an OD of around 0.90".
These are all around the same size so nothing can be slipped into anything else and clamped into place. Have to come up with different ways of mating them together.
To mate the exhaust hose and the muffler I'll add an insert to one end of the muffler to create a smaller OD tube that the exhaust hose can be clamped around. To create the insert I cut off a short section of the conduit.
Clamp the conduit section in the vise then use a hacksaw to cut out a small lengthwise section.
Take the conduit section. Squeeze it closed with pliers then insert into the end of the muffler.
Weld the insert into the muffler end. Then clamp the muffler to the workbench and grind off the worst looking bits of the weld.
Test fit the flexible hose onto the muffler with welded insert.
Mistake #2: The insert should have been longer but I won't find that out till later.
Create another insert for the end of the conduit that will go onto the other end of the muffler.
Weld the conduit to the muffler. I probably didn't need the insert for this weld but it was the first time I welded two tubes together. Kinda like training wheels.
Shorten the flexible hose to the length I plan on needing.
Do a test fit of the exhaust system onto the heater.
After fitting it into place I realized that my first plan had some flaws. Originally the exhaust would have a downward slope but mounting it in that position would be a problem.
While I'm lying under the van turning this problem over in my mind Tiger wanders over and tells me he has an idea.
He suggested using one of the 180 degrees curved tube ends but cut it into a 90 degree curve. Excellent idea!
This will allow the exhaust to run parallel to the underside of the van and be mounted to the bottom of the "C" pillar.
continued -