Keeping existing heater ... or not?

[Shortbus PA]

i'm in the process or gutting my IC BE200 short bus and am not sure what to do with the heater unit. Does anyone keep the block heaters in the back or should I remove it?

 

[musigenesis]

Welcome to skoolie.net. If you click on User CP in the upper left you can fill out your profile details, and then everyone will know where you're at and what kind of bus you have.

The heaters are hooked up to your engine's cooling system (the hoses carry the hot coolant out to the heaters and back), so normally they only function when the bus is running; when parked, they'll just be taking up space and you'll still need an alternative source of heat.

It is possible to hook up a separate diesel heater for the coolant, which would allow you to also use these heaters while parked. Pretty expensive, though, and the plumbing is not that simple. They do have a side benefit, though, in that they can be used to pre-warm the engine before startup on cold days.

Removing the heater would theoretically make the back of the bus colder, but with a shorter bus the front heaters will probably be more than sufficient. I drove my 11-window bus in below-freezing temperatures last winter and the front heaters kept me nice and toasty while driving - despite having a wide open 8'x8' hole in the floor in back.

 

[cadillackid]

most people ditch the rear heaters but keep the front heat / defrost systems.. it takes a LOT OF HEAT to defrost that nig window esp in the rain.. so keep the front system.. ditch the rear heaters and either replace with something different (or not depending on your use)..



*DO* take apart your front heaters and restore them while your bus is gutted.. clean the coils, inspoect and replace or clean the blower motors as needed..



when you take up the hoses going from the front to the rear you can loop the 2 lines together that come from the front heater heasded to the back..



if you plan om having people ride in the rear part of your bus in cold weather you may want to come up with another source of heat for the rear for driving. or even keep / restore the original heaters or replace them with smaller newer units that could be integrated into your conversion.

 

[Shortbus PA]

Thanks for the response!
Is it that the original heaters are inefficient or is it just their size?

 

[cadillackid]

Thanks for the response!
Is it that the original heaters are inefficient or is it just their size?

size is the reason most pull out the rear heaters.. some people are apprehensive about the rubber hoses that go from the front of the bus to the back.. as most conversions render them inaccessible, the heater cores do sometikmes go bad and leak.. they are always dirty and neat fully cleaned.. the fan motors often need serviced. . for the front systems to me its worth rebuilding and restoring.. for the rear if major repairs are needed it makes sense to get more compact newer units ..