Where to tap coolant for a shower heat exchanger?

[avslash]

Good idea for most, especially if you don't have a very efficient heat exchanger. In my case, I have fuel storage under there, with a skid plate over it. And this heat exchanger seems to be VERY efficient.

Not to hijack your interesting thread, but what tank and skid plate do you have?

I have an LRA tank and have had getting a skid plate fabbed up for it on my list but haven't accomplished it yet. Curious if you had something custom fabbed or found an off the shelf solution.

Feel free to PM me to avoid cluttering this thread.

Thanks.

 

[greiswig]

Not to hijack your interesting thread, but what tank and skid plate do you have?

I have an LRA tank and have had getting a skid plate fabbed up for it on my list but haven't accomplished it yet. Curious if you had something custom fabbed or found an off the shelf solution.

Feel free to PM me to avoid cluttering this thread.

Thanks.

I have a couple of these https://www.trailedonline.com/ jerry cans, and just rigged up a thick aluminum plate to support these using the stock spare tire winch. They're really just there for emergencies, and I'd rather have a more dedicated fuel cell with a pump there, but I got a good deal on these. I have one for water, too.

 

[ftillier]

Oh, those are neat! What's the weight capacity of the spare winch?

 

[greiswig]

Oh, those are neat! What's the weight capacity of the spare winch?

I don't think that's published anywhere. But I'd expect a tire and wheel to weigh about 2/3 of what these weigh. Winch doesn't feel like it is straining at all.

 

[99grahamcracker]

LOL...believe me, I wasn't trying to impress. Just get in the ballpark of what kind of heating I might expect.


This is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for when I posted...that there would be some people out there with engineering knowledge who could chime in. It sounds like you may have the pertinent knowledge, so thank you.

I'm not really following your description, though. If I understand it right, you're suggesting that I use two electric pumps: one for the shower water and one for the coolant? Would it be possible to get a sketch of what you're trying to describe?

I was hoping to avoid that second pump and just take advantage of the flow caused by the engine-driven pump, though.

A dedicated circulation pump to run coolant thru the heat exchanger would be needed to hydraulically discouple the car’s system from your water heater. The benefit is that is wouldn’t affect the vehicles system at all. If you position the heat exchanger in the cars system such that the cars water pump pushes thru it then the pressure restriction of the heat exchanger may have an adverse effect.

 

[greiswig]

A dedicated circulation pump to run coolant thru the heat exchanger would be needed to hydraulically discouple the car’s system from your water heater. The benefit is that is wouldn’t affect the vehicles system at all. If you position the heat exchanger in the cars system such that the cars water pump pushes thru it then the pressure restriction of the heat exchanger may have an adverse effect.

I agree. I don't know much about the system, but I know there's a 1.5" inlet on the radiator. No idea how the flow capacity of that compares to what the maximum flow that a full-open thermostat allows, though. And I don't know to what extent putting an additional restriction (although I don't think the heat exchanger is actually very restrictive, it still has 1" inlet and outlet). But I'd think that basically putting a Y in that was 1" on both paths might allow enough flow through the system and not interfere? Like in this diagram. Unmolested radiator hose on top, then the alternative Y'd path below.

 

[99grahamcracker]

Yes, that would work, with a circ pump in one of the Y legs pushing coolant thru your heat exchanger.

 

[greiswig]

Getting back to this again. I'm wondering what this hose is that the arrow points to here. The manual seems to say it goes off to the supercharger air cooler, and the two hoses that the diagram shows as running off to the right DO that, but the end (where the 16 is) is around a 5/8" hose that just seems to run down, and I can't tell where. Wondering about putting this heat exchanger in series with that.

 

[greiswig]

OK, I think I'm answering my own question here: this seems to be the main hose going to the secondary radiator that is dedicated to the supercharger cooler. I still don't have a feel for whether this would be a good place to put this heat exchanger in series, since the loop is run by the electrical pump. The side with the easy access (the red arrow in my previous post) is also the part of the circuit after the CAC radiator, so that isn't the hot side of the coolant. And I'm not sure how hot that coolant is liable to be at idle speed, anyway.