diesel heater service

[turf]

slowly knocking off items on my todo list and the heater is finally back installed.

i re- assembled the heater, per the prior pics.... and screwed up. i had missed bolting down that sensor earlier..... and now the bolts at the end of assembly didnt match out. something was wrong.

so i took a couple of hours and disassembled the heater again. i put the wrong bolts in the combustion chamber on assemble #1. at the end, i had 4 bolts left over and 1 was longer than the other 3.....so, i realized i had the combustion bolts and not the case bolts at the end.

so apart the heater came and i fixed my errors. right bolts, right spot. temp sensor secured. case fits right with the bolts at the end.

the heater did drop back into place pretty easily. i was expecting a fight. the wiring hooked back up and i ran a test cycle.

i took a video of the fuel pump output. its similar to the first video, so maybe the fuel pump wasnt a problem at all. 1 drip per click.

but once the fuel line was hooked up, she started up and lit on about the 3rd click of the pump.

so all happy now..... heater works... just in time for this cold patch.

 

[turf]

link to the fuel pump vids on my google account.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/kPevxfXB3NmxYfCb6

the first vid is the old pump.....~12sec.
the second vid is the new pump....~27 sec.


not much difference...



reflecting back on the heater.....
i have run it before while in motion, but not often. the heater failed last time i used it with the vehicle in motion.
i think the motion played a part in the failure, i think the gasket on the burn pot was compromised, and when in motion, a draft caused the flame to back through the air blower chamber burning/shorting out the flame probe wires.

 

[cadillackid]

ive run all my diesel heaters.. both chinese and real webasto while driving... I set them up so the exhaust pounts a little backwards.. this creates a bit of a venturi effect on the exhaust whle driving.. so if anything it would tend to create a negative pressureo n the combustion chamber.. I suppose it could result in too much air and the flame going out but it hasnt.. I run a size bigger Nozzle in my Real webasto (it uses the same nozzles as a standard Beckett oil burning home boiler / furnace).. so it tends to smoke a tad black on super cold startup anyway.. it clears up pretty quickly.. my combustion analyzer shows it running a tad rich in the beginning but goes to normal.. I casnt run my combustion analyzer while the bus is moving.. its a handheld device wit ha probe you stick in the exhaust.. my exhaust runs to the edge of the bus and out a couple inches so it should be away from under-bus turbulent air..

 

[turf]

well the heater has a combustion side and an air exchanger side.

the flame probe wires that burnt were on the air side...adjacent to the compromised gasket.

so i had flames where they should'nt have been...on the air side.

thankfully, it faulted out and shut down.


here is an earlier pic of disassembly.

the air intake side and blower chamber with burnt flame probe.

 

[heimlich]

You don't see that very often - made in Russia. I bet it's very solid.

I'm surprised at how cheap the China ones are. The last spare I bought was $79. Are they worth servicing? If you are just sitting around and need something to do I suppose it's a good thing to do.

 

[Cheezewhiz]

They're honestly really easy to service, and the parts are cheap.

Having had some issues (bad fuel) I can get mine out, apart, cleaned, back together and running and n about half an hour