Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi can anyone tell me if there is a better heater that i can install into my morris minor perhaps one from another make/model of car that requires some minor modifications inorder to fit as the one in my minor is useless .

Minor heaters are not usually useless! I suggest you might have a blocked heater matrix or an air lock in the matrix. Mini matrix's do fit if you need a replacement and are slightly bigger than the Minor ones but even that won't get you much heat if you have a problem somewhere else in the sytem. Have you tried flushing out your current matrix and filling it directly from the heater hose to ensure there are no air locks?

Have a look in tech tips under mini heater

The heater in my Minor is great.
It make me wonder therefore if yours is faulty.
I assume you have a thermostat and it's working correctly ?
Is the heat valve opening fully and it it clear of obstructions such as coolant "crud".
In fact the heater core might have a build up of limescale that is restricting transfer of heat from the coolant.
Have you tried removing the air intake from the side of the heater and blocking the pipe to stop drafts. The heater will then recirculate the air in the car rather than from outside.

I believe the Mini heater is a common upgrade and easy to fit.

Paul H
.

I will check the full heating/cooling system at the weekend and see if it improves ,but i flushed the system and refilled a few months ago and checked all the hoses when the engine was at operating temp and they all seem to be very hot but still not getting that much heat at the heater and its baltic inside when driving it on a frosty morning

Flushing in-situ wont be enough. there's no substitute for removal of the heater and flushing backwards and forwards several times with an overnight soak with a suitable descaling solution.

Definately remove the heater and continually flush it through back and forth,until you just have clear water coming out. They are usually full of silt. As peetee said, an overnight soak is well worth doing.

Check that the foam seals around the matrix are still there, if they have rotted away the air will just pass around the matrix instead of being forced through it and being warmed.

Another good idea is to fit a 92 degree thermostat in the engine, this makes a real difference. I have run mine with one of these stats fitted all year round with no overheating in the summer and a great hot heater.


Lee.

I agree, the standard heater is of the OK type when clear, but... its freezing outside and you helpfully tell the poor beggar to strip his heater , soak overnight and flush back/forwards... feel a bit sorry for him when he's doing this!!
Pity the heater doesn't tell us it's not working in warmer weather!

The most essential thing is to fit an 88 degree thermostat - after you are sure there is good water flow through the heater. The Mini heater fan is much bigger - and so blows more air through the matrix, but if there is not enough water flow, and the water is not hot enough - then it will just blow cold air. If your heater is the 'fresh air' type - withan elephant trunk running to the front of the car, make sure that trunk is connected to the heater intake - and is not just bringing cold air in to your feet! The other end can also be usefully repositioned so it takes warm air from behind the engine radiator - and this helps the heater efficiency quite a bit!

I've fitted a Mini heater recently and it is an improvement though I still needed coat, scarf and gloves when it was -5 degrees outside! I suspect my problem may be down to draughts from the door seal, window and quarterlight now. Is yours draughty too?

Before I changed the heater I'd already stripped the old one and thoroughly flushed the matrix to no great avail. Didn't try descaler though (and I do have hard water).

If you disconnect the trunking at the heater end and plug it up with some cloth or an old scarf/socks it will make quite a difference as you won't have that nice blast of cold air going into the heater any more, and then reconnect in the warmer weather.

But the 'fresh air' helps to remove condensation - moving it behind the radiator means it gets warm(ish) air, and still helps with the condensation removal.

I think the problem is a general lack of water movement from the engine to the heater. The difference in heat output between an A series and a Fiat TC, or a Rover V8 is quite surprising. I also think that the older heaters (round type) were a good bit warmer.
I tried everything with my wifes minor as I had to use 2 cans of de-icer inside the windscreen in a very cold 100 mile journey in a winter in the early 80's (-20).

Pete

Same A series engine could circulate water ok through the much larger and very efficient heater in the 1100/1300 models. Later engines had a larger water pump impeller - may be worth considering (but check it doesn't foul on the block internally), and removal of the ghastly little bypass hose ensure ALL the water goes through the heater when the 'stat is closed. It speeds up heater warm-up considerably!

hello i have put caustic sodain radiators having removed from the car i think there are two strengths i use the strong one ,dilute a strong mix lay rad flat fill with the soda mix leave all night soaking.watch hands and face as it does burn .i know its not the correct solution but it works better than so called rad flush,sure this will meet with dissaproval but with empting some out in the morning the tilting rad back and forthseveral times then flush well wi th cold water, it works,,,,grandad

linearaudio wrote:Pity the heater doesn't tell us it's not working in warmer weather!

Rather than use caustic soda or rad flush which I have never had much luck with the best thing to use is good old fashioned kettle descaler its much kinder to skin as well.

hello there are two strenghts os soda does need to bestrong mix i havent used kettle descaler but im sure it would work well will try it next ,,,gandad

I've ben looking for ages for kettle descaler - anyone know where it can be bought these days? None of the big supermarkets seem to stock it.....?

PSL184 wrote:I've ben looking for ages for kettle descaler - anyone know where it can be bought these days? None of the big supermarkets seem to stock it.....?

we get outs from local village shops and local diy shop. typical old village shops ,,grandad

This is our prototype 3 speed 6KW heater, soon to be incorporated into a Minor style housing. but a smaller same powered heater will be available in April/May which is virtually hidden behind the speedo unit.<br><br>