Diesel heater fuel tank placement

[user 423]

gonetoday, my '94 Econoline (sliding door, unfortunately) has a 2kw diesel heater and tank mounted to the left, next to the wall. Time flies, now five years. Notice the fuel line enters the top of the tank, which avoids possible leaks from a bottom fitting.

I finally discovered an occasional stink was due to the hole in the cap not having a check valve. It could breathe both in and out. Solved with a small screw removed when using, until swapping caps with a new one mentioned below.

I guess after 5 years you've had no trouble with the heater being so close to the tank! From what I've gleaned online it seems the heater should have a couple inches of clearance on each side. I guess the exterior doesn't get that hot? The manual is undecipherable and it doesn't seem to say anything about spacing.

I checked the cap I have and it has a valve. Makes sense to allow air in as fuel is used up. It would seem that there would need to be venting in the other direction to allow fumes to escape in hot weather. If you added a tubing extension on the cap (vented to the exterior) like they have on dirt bikes, that would vent in both directions.

 

[jasper]

The tank seems to expand and contract enough to take care of heat and altitude changes. Good idea on the vent.

No problem holding my hand against the housing while the heater is running. The worst case scenario is a loss of power when running, therefore no automatic cool down mode. Simulating that, I can still place my hand on it.

If the display asks for a four-digit code, or password, then it probably has the capability to change fan speeds and fuel pump pulse rate.

As hugemoth stated, the controller and boards can be replaced. Two years ago, when searching for spare parts, I found a 2kw control board, controller, and remote for about 40 bucks, IIRC. Although the original "plateau" model worked fine on both diesel and kerosene, it is nice to be able to lean the mixture.

My new board also recognizes if you lift the top cover while running and initiates a shutdown.

A 2kw heater generally uses a 16ml rated pulse pump, vs. a 22ml for a 5-8kw unit.

I have a pulse pump, glow plug, plug removal tool, glow plug screens, heat sensor, and fuel filter as spares, but have not needed them. I saved the original control board and controller.

A flexible hose connected to the outlet can be used as a hair dryer, clothes dryer, bed warmer, etc.

 

[user 423]

Thanks for the feedback and it's great to have a good source of info with so much experience. I now feel better about placing it in the footwell like this person did:



Don't know what I was thinking about hot weather affecting the fuel much since it wouldn't be used then . I may be using a filler pipe from a Honda Civic for an external filler and it has a vent pipe built in.

It's good to know that they can be serviced at a reasonable price. The multiple uses for the fan/hose is a plus,too.