Ok i need to know if i put a t in the out line of the trucks radiator line , and poss put in a small 12 volt pump to help pump the (hot) water to a 100 gal tank say in the middle of the van with a home heating coil out of my old water tank would this element heat this 100 gal tank compared to the home 60 gal tank? also would it hurt the system of the van it self as far as properly cooling it like it should?..... im looking to get a 100 gls of water better than hot pretty much every time i drive it. thks .
Diverting radiator water question?
- Thread starter mad57
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rvr6000
Well-known member
I have no idea what you are talking about. You want heat 100 gallons of coolant outside of the vehicles radatior? You want to use the vehicles cooling system to heat 100 gallons of water?
rvr6000
Well-known member
Okay.....curiosity is killing this cat. Why do you need to do this, what is the water for and how hot does the water need to be?
Trying to heat a hundred gallons of water with the 180 degree water from your vehicles coolant system isn't going to be very effective.
Trying to heat a hundred gallons of water with the 180 degree water from your vehicles coolant system isn't going to be very effective.
nehog
Well-known member
Just use the heater core lines...
LEVE
Well-known member
I think this may be a better idea; click on the graphic:
It will give you a good idea of what you need to do... Modify away... and have the hot water you need.
It will give you a good idea of what you need to do... Modify away... and have the hot water you need.
tcianci
Well-known member
Thermodynamics notwithstanding, you're talking about 835 pounds of water plus the tank. I'm wondering if you think you're going to drive this thing or just use it as a water heater? If you run the coolant through a home water heater coil, submerged in a 100 gallons of water, yeah you will heat it, eventually. What temperature to you want to get the water up to and what is the final use of the water?
R6 Racer
Well-known member
I'm guessing the OP has some kind of hot water heat in his home, & is looking for a way to take advantage of the heat energy his vehicle produces everyday.
If this is the case, I don't know if the resulting added expense of driving the vehicle with all that water in it will be very effective. Plus you would have to take some sort of energy to transfer the heated water to the homes closed system.
On ther other hand if this is not what the OP is referring to, well........
NEVER MIND
Steve
If this is the case, I don't know if the resulting added expense of driving the vehicle with all that water in it will be very effective. Plus you would have to take some sort of energy to transfer the heated water to the homes closed system.
On ther other hand if this is not what the OP is referring to, well........
NEVER MIND
Steve
its for a carpet cleaning machine to pre heat the water before it goes into the machine which is fuel fired heat the water, now diesel is the fuel and at $3 ish a gal im looking to save a bit of fuel by using pre heated water so thermo doesnt kick on as much.Racecarl
Well-known member
That extra 850+ pounds of water and tank-related equipment is going to take more fuel to haul around, not to mention the extra space required. I'm not sure you would save enough diesel fuel to justify the expense.
sounds like he's dragging the water around anyway. if so i'd definitely do something to help maintain the heat. just don't want to take so much heat out of the motor that it's running cold for a long time.
ddawg16
Well-known member
Yes, it will work. In fact, I wouldn't bother with the T....just run all of your engine coolant through the heat exchanger. But make sure you do it on the radiator side. Otherwise, the time it takes to heat up the water will cause your engine to run too cold and kill your gas mileage.
Charles (in GA)
Well-known member
Use your heater hoses. If you **** heat out of the engine, the thermostat will never open anyhow. the heat exchanger shown several posts ago is probably the best thing. You may be driving around with no heat in the van, but your water will be hot.
Charles
Charles
PAToyota
Well-known member
The other thing to consider is that you may end up with the engine running too cold - you don't say where you are at or what engine you have in the vehicle.
I think it would work fine, heat the water OK without making the engine too cold for too long. Back of envelope, count on my fingers type calculations....100 gal water raised 100 degrees is the BTU of 1/2 gal gasoline...so if 25% of gasoline energy is waste heat, you burn 2 gals to waste enough heat for your tank....so after 30 miles driving or so your 100 gallon tank is...what 160F?
snyder
Well-known member
A gallon of gasoline has the potential for 22,000 btus.. In a normal vehicle 2/3 of your gas is wasted as heat. You now have approximately 7,000 btu's per hour of heat dissipated by the vehicles radiator.. if you reclaimed this heat into your water tank the formula
( capacity of gallons X 8.33 X temp of increase desired divided by 24 hours would equal the btus per hour of energy.
You would then factor the insulating capacity of your storage tank and hoses.. Probably figure at least a ten percent heat loss.
( capacity of gallons X 8.33 X temp of increase desired divided by 24 hours would equal the btus per hour of energy.
You would then factor the insulating capacity of your storage tank and hoses.. Probably figure at least a ten percent heat loss.
rvr6000
Well-known member
You're not heating the water with gasoline....you're heating 100 gallons of water with a coil of what will essentially be luke warm water after going through the cooling system of the vehicle after drivign around in the winter. Add in the heat loss of an additional, I'll say 16 feet (8 feet to the tank and 8 feet back to the engine) of heater hose and the heat loss of of the water tank itself this all sounds like a failed experiment.
If you've ever tried to boil a really large pot of water on a residential kitchen stove you know you can't do it.....the pot of water is loosing heat faster than a gas burner can deliver it. That's a couple gallons with a gas burner.....we're talking about 100 gallons of water using 180 degree water as the heat source.
Yes, fuel is expensive but almost everyone these days is tacking on a fuel surcharge. Perhaps that's a better option.
If you've ever tried to boil a really large pot of water on a residential kitchen stove you know you can't do it.....the pot of water is loosing heat faster than a gas burner can deliver it. That's a couple gallons with a gas burner.....we're talking about 100 gallons of water using 180 degree water as the heat source.
Yes, fuel is expensive but almost everyone these days is tacking on a fuel surcharge. Perhaps that's a better option.
You're way, way off. Gasoline has roughly 112,000-114,000 BTU/gallon depending on season and location. A gasoline engine will waste about 75% of that as heat, with about half of that coming out of the exhaust, and the other half going into the cooling system.
I service a company that has carpet machines and they use the engine for heat with a exchanger and a direct shaft using a a/c clutch for the pumps.
The engine throttles up and runs 1500 rpms all day long. The customer trades them in with 60,0000 miles on the odometer and enough hours on the machine to average to a total of 300,000 miles . He always claims the Ford 5.4 l put out more heat than his GMC 5.7 or the new 6.0. I usualy end up replacing plugs,coils and fuel pumps in 2years. Water pumps on the older 5.7l gmc were common also. The belt tensioners for the direct shaft are also very common.
The company that fabs the vans or can help you is BUTLER but, if you are in the business I would think you heard of them.
Hope this helps,
Mac
The engine throttles up and runs 1500 rpms all day long. The customer trades them in with 60,0000 miles on the odometer and enough hours on the machine to average to a total of 300,000 miles . He always claims the Ford 5.4 l put out more heat than his GMC 5.7 or the new 6.0. I usualy end up replacing plugs,coils and fuel pumps in 2years. Water pumps on the older 5.7l gmc were common also. The belt tensioners for the direct shaft are also very common.
The company that fabs the vans or can help you is BUTLER but, if you are in the business I would think you heard of them.
Hope this helps,
Mac
Just look at the hose routing for the OEM rear heaters for vans.
When I was driving vans full of kids I would make back seat heaters out of a heater core and blower in a sheet metal box.
The best hose routing was a “T” before the front heater going to the rear heater and then back to the hose out of the front heater.
No aux pump needed.
The regular pump has plenty of volume and pressure.
The kids could adjust the temp by turning the fan on and off.
There was no water volume adjustment.
But I still had all the factory cab controls for temp adjustment and fan speed.
You are only adding a few gallons of water to the cooling system.
I never noticed any over cooling of the engine.
It would get up the thermostat temp and stay there.
Your idea should work just fine.
Just do not route the hoses close to any moving parts.
(This includes the steering shaft.)
And wait until you have run some hot water through it before tying in place.
It gets much more flexible and easier to tuck away when hot.
When I was driving vans full of kids I would make back seat heaters out of a heater core and blower in a sheet metal box.
The best hose routing was a “T” before the front heater going to the rear heater and then back to the hose out of the front heater.
No aux pump needed.
The regular pump has plenty of volume and pressure.
The kids could adjust the temp by turning the fan on and off.
There was no water volume adjustment.
But I still had all the factory cab controls for temp adjustment and fan speed.
You are only adding a few gallons of water to the cooling system.
I never noticed any over cooling of the engine.
It would get up the thermostat temp and stay there.
Your idea should work just fine.
Just do not route the hoses close to any moving parts.
(This includes the steering shaft.)
And wait until you have run some hot water through it before tying in place.
It gets much more flexible and easier to tuck away when hot.