sorry do you mean 'by gravity' that you just poured some coolant into the unit to prime it? the instructions are also clear on mine and says to absolutely not run it dry at all. Sounds like you've done what i was planning to do also - fill it with coolant then attach the dry break fittings on.
Yup, exactly that 🙂
Testing done. Notes were:
Start point, oil and water at 21degC
Oil heater on - 45 mins to get to 70c
Unplugged oil and swapped over to water heater on.
After 20 mins, oil at 58C, water at 64.
Unplugged water, oil heater back on, started car.
I had the usual oil temp dip as it started to circulate but it was minimal as the water went up to 92 and fan kicked in. Oil bottomed out at 52 and then back on the rise to 55.
The car was on for 6 minutes. I'm very happy with that, a big improvement on 15+. It will pay dividends as we get back to the cooler temps here in UK (today was a surprisingly warm day at 21C).
Issues? Well the heater was running at 2000w even though I bought one rated at 1500w. I've emailed VVKB to ask them why that's the case, but the result is because my generator is 2000w continuous/2200 peak, I have to heat things up sequentially. Which as it turns out isn't an issue because of how much quicker the water heats relative to the oil anyway.
Also the jiffytite fittings do not release smoothly or easily and every time I've unplugged the heater I've spilt about 30-50ml of coolant all over the place as it splashes out from the pressure.
@rjbender do you grease or oil any of the fittings? Are you experiencing a similar kind of difficulty?
@rojid ... No. I try and keep the fittings as dry and clean as possible. You can but rubber covers (sleeves) for them from Jiffy that also have a tether to the fitting so the cover can't come off. I had to buy mine from the US as there aren't any obvious suppliers here in Australia. Shipping cost was horrendous, but I neded the fittings so went ahead. After I place the order I realised I had forgotten to buy the covers.... so I made my own. They aren't as good but they do cover the 'inner workings' of the valves (where the leaks will come from). The main objective is to stop dirt/dust getting in, rather than stopping a leak.
I'm very disappointed with the Jiffy fittings to be honest. I'm not sure they are marketed as true 'dry-break' fittings, but if they are that's not true! I'm the same as you. It doesn't matter how you undo them ... you always seems to lose a few ml (I would say less than 5 ort 10ml). The first time I did it I came close to burning myself as I had the water temp at around 70C. I now use a rag in one hand to hold the fitting while I undo them....
Good to know you got your system working! If you decide to buy some Jiffy rubber dust covers for your fittings then let me know. (There are 'male' and 'female' - so you would need two of each) I'll get you to buy enough for mine too and get you to post them to RLM (Dan the Man!). I've got some other parts there that will be sent to Tassie in a few months.
Rod
no problem @rjbender i'll get round to ordering some dust covers soon.
I put a tiny amount of silicone grease around the bearings and i'm more confident with the action so now like you I only lose a few drops but it's still annoying.
Thought i'd provide a further update to my heating experiments......having to remove the engine cover to plug in the heater definitely is not the way to go, way too much hassle and faff between slotted practice sessions.
I need to spend another ~£70 on parts, and instead of the dry breaks attaching directly to the coolant lines, have 2 hose lines running from the coolant weldons to the back of the car, running along the floor. I can just tie-wrap it to the chassis/floor/lower suspension arms. I can then plug the heater quickly into the fittings at the back.
I bought a cheap voltage regulator off amazon for £20 which did the job to restrict the power draw of the heater, and at the same time have bought another heater from VVKB, a smaller 1000w unit. Customer service has been great from these Chinese team and they refunded me for the P3 unit and said I could keep it as returning back to China would have been some £.
I have to find an efficient routine that works. I'm really not sure what exact combo/timing of oil + water heating is required to get up to the magic 50C the most quickly and need to continue experimenting.
I routed mine to the rear and the did same with the oil heating power leads with some ‘power con’ waterproof connectors to make life easy. Routing the lines is pretty straight forward and the diy bracket connects to the steel subframe under the bodywork
i was just about to ask for pics so thank you! I will have to mount them differently at the back because i'm running the Quiet exhaust with 2 mufflers and it uses up a chunk of that space to wrap round itself. I was thinking of just running both hoses together up the floor, tie wrapped to the lower control arm brace and then somehow attach it to the rear diffuser bracket. It's easy enough for me to then reach in and connect.
are you running 2 oil heater pads then as well?
yes two heating pads to speed the mornings warmup, we have good access to power at the tracks we attend and the super fast warmup is handy!
