In line heater install

[general lee]

I bought a in line heater to install, it says its suppose to go in the lower rad hose.
This hose goes into the front of the block and that is where the thermostat is, I have been told the fluid will not pass thru the thermostat while it is closed, so I am confused.
1. the lower rad hose goes to the thermostat at the front?
2. the upper rad hose goes into the side of the engine (near the battery)??
3. Should the heater go on the upper hose

Because these are universal heaters, has the manf. overlooked the set up of the vw's??

I have a 2001 jetta tdi, any help would be very much appreciated.
Lee

 

[Curious Chris]

"universal" may not be true in this case. I remember back when I drove small block V8's that the you always put the heater in the lower radiator hose. Then I had small truck that use a frost plug heater. Neither of these options will work on your car.

The place to install a heater on your car is the line coming off of the oil cooler which goes up to the block. This means you need a convection coolant heater. The easiest path is www.frostheater.com as he makes a kit for you car. With two people you can install it and loose maybe 500ml of coolant.

Of course you can also ignore the kit, and work on finding all the hoses yourself and buy a Zerostart heater.

 

[general lee]

thanx, will look into it.

 

[coalminer16]

The inline heater might work. The frost heater will work. Yes, vw's tend to have the thermostat on the bottom of the coolant circuit will a lot of other vehicles have them on the top (which is why they burn out on the others if they are low at all on coolant). The in line heater should go in the lowest spot possible and shouldn't have a pump to it at all. That way the heated coolant can rise up in the circuit. If it is the highest point in the circuit it won't heat much more then the surrounding area. You will likely heat more of the radiator up then the engine at least at first. If it can get the coolant warm enough to open the thermostat then it would start to heat the engine block as well. The frost heater like stated above runs from the oil cooler lines which are in the engine circuit with the thermostat closed and/or open. So the engine is the first to warm up with that style heater. Hope that explains it. You would likely be money and time ahead to get the frost heater as install is fast and easy and it isn't that expensive plus it is a proven product. I can burn my hand on my engine after it is plugged in it gets so hot.

 

[general lee]

thanx coalminer, I think I will buy one and get a friend to help me install it. Looks easy enough but I always run into trouble somewhere.

On another topic I work in a coal mine as well, in tumblerridge bc. canada. World is a small place.