1992 Talbot Express: Diesel Heater

Hi all, first post on here so nice to meet you all!

We bought a 1992 Talbot Express Harmony 2l petrol in great condition a few months ago and we absolutely love it!  The only real issue when we bought it was it didn’t have any heating.

Looking under the bonnet we found there was a lot of room in the engine bay, under the bracket that holds the spare tyre.
So we bought a 5kw diesel heater from eBay and with a little tinkering (and a little bit of help with a welder) we mounted it to the underside of the spare tyre bracket. 
The fuel tank (5L, as the 10L one was way too big) fits in perfectly to the side and the only hole we had to drill through to the cab was the 75mm one for the hot air.  This comes out in the footwell.
The cable for the thermostat went through an existing hole with other wiring so that was simple too, just had to cut the plug off and re wire it back on inside the cab.

It was a bit of work but works a real treat, the van heats up in just a few minutes!  Now we’re going to be using it all year round!

I can send pics if anyone is interested…

I was mainly wondering if anyone else had done it as it seemed such an obvious thing to try, but I couldn’t find anything online from anyone else.

Anyway that’s my first post done, stay safe everyone!

Don

If you're going to mount a heater in the engine bay then an alternative is one of the systems like the Eberspacher Hydronic - the big advantage of this is that it doesn't need a separate fan or any ducting - it heats the engine coolant and uses the factory cab fan.

You can pre-heat the engine before doing an engine start - which makes a cold weather start a bit more efficient (especially on a diesel), and it also means that the standard dash demisting works immediately, as soon as you drive off.

The downside is... it's expensive! Mine was fitted by A/S at the factory for the original owner, so I didn't see the exact price, but I know it was over a grand, fitted.

As an economy solution, yours seems like a good idea - but don't forget to notify your insurance company about the modification.