Europa Heater hose connections

[YellowS4DHC]

Boy I feel dumb asking this  , but here goes:

My TC came to me without the heater hooked up - no hoses, no control valve, only the heater box.  I can see where the heater should be connected to the pipes in the chassis (via short S-shaped hoses), and I think I can see where these pipes exit at the bottom of the car in front of the engine. 

One of these pipes connects to the heater control valve mounted on the engine.  The other pipe must connect to the engine somewhere but I can't figure out where.  My TC doesn't have a hose connector on the lower right side of the engine (behind the timing chest) as on my S4.  I'd also like to know how the heater hoses should be routed in the engine bay.

Comments appreciated, pictures especially so.

thanks,
Rick

[EuropaTC]

Hi Rick,

Welcome to one of those jobs best performed when the body is 3 foot in the air above the chassis, assembling the heater hoses.....

As you say, both metal tubes exit the central tunnel in front of the engine, and one goes to the heater valve. The other is a real nuisance as it goes to one of the large steel tubes that lie in the tunnel. There is a small connection facing forward, at about the height of the connection to the header/expansion/filler  tank. I very much doubt I could get a decent photo  so I've enclosed a page from the parts manual. If you look you can see it's on pipe #8, facing forward at the same level as tube #14.

I don't know if you've got the proper molded hoses for inside the car, the funny "S" shaped ones, but they do make life so much easier. I had to replace mine last winter and for some reason couldn't get the proper ones. I first tried normal 1/2" hose but even with generous lengths to reduce the radius of the bends they still kinked. In the end I made up the double bend section from plumbing fittings and just used rubber for straight connectors. The message is "try and get the proper hoses", it will save a lot of hassle !

Brian

[YellowS4DHC]

Brian,
thank you very much for the info.  I have to admit I haven't crawled under there to look forward into the tunnel but, frankly, I was expecting a direct attachment somewhere to the head or block.  I believe I see the "missing" connection point in the figure you provided; it's small and relatively obscure, and the fact that it's oriented facing away from the viewer doesn't help but at least I know where it is now.  I've looked at this figure many times in the last few weeks and never saw what that short hose was supposed to connect to.

I now have the heater control valve ($25 USD from Victoria British, for a TR6 application) and both S hoses (apparently unique to this application).  When I saw them on-line @RD Enterprises, it seemed like a good idea; they weren't cheap at $16 USD each but look like they will fit. 

One other question occurs to me:  did Lotus originally use a rubber hose extending all the way from the control valve forward and down in front of the engine to the pipe exiting the tunnel?  Seems like a long run for a hose and I think some copper tubing here might make it easier to route not to mention improve robustness (copper tubing can be near the headers with no problem, rubber hoses exposed to high heat will age and crack prematurely.  I'd appreciate knowing where and how you and others routed this line.

regards
Rick

[EuropaTC]

Hi Rick,

$16 is an absolute bargain, trust me !  Although they are small hoses the space is very tight and despite many tries with large & small radius bends I couldn't get normal 1/2" hose to work. So you've done very well to get the correct fitting. If I'd realized RD had them I would happily have paid that plus postage to the UK.

My car has a long rubber hose from the control valve to the tunnel pipe and was like that when I bought it. In practice there is so much space and air flow around there that it doesn't seem to deteriorate. I used a very long length & clipped it with zip ties inside the frame. Although I'm not averse to using copper (or any metallic) tubing I think it would be an unnecessary complication there, two more rubber/metal joints to tighten and watch over.

Going back to the other tube, there is enough room to do it from underneath, it's just very fiddly. Take off your watch, roll up your sleeves for extra clearance and be prepared for battle scars 

Brian

[LeftAngle]

 Rick:

I'm doing the same exersize and asking the same questions with my R16.

I've discovered some braided hose used in aircraft that takes tight bends.  Downside is it costs a minimum of $25 per foot, so I'll most likely use aluminum tube to run the lines back to the areas of their connections and use short lengths of the braided hose to make the bends.

Aluminum tubing can be had in sizes that can be cut and slipped over and welded to the primary sized pipe.  A larger pipe can be slipped over everything and welded all together.  The entire pipe looking like a skinny glass-pac muffler.  The idea being a small airspace between the inner and outer and inner tubes.  I'd like to run both tubes down the left hand side of the engine, across the intake manafold and away from the top and plug wires.

Maybe this will work, but at any rate, the insulated tubes would take back some of the insulation of the missing hosesk

[LeftAngle]

Update to my previous post:

After ordering hoses I wasn't able to see first hand off the internet and running around attempting to piece together hoses from all the local automotive outlets, I've come to the same conclusion the PO must have reached... "You can't get there from here".

My 1.6L Renault's hose castings are all one size larger than the pipes they need to connect to.  It's a cruel (but admittedly funny) joke played on all long-time and future Lotus owners.   The PO's solution was to use male-to-male connectors and/or force fit hoses over a large casting.

This works, but it makes things look quite... What's the word?... Oh, yah... Tacky.  I can't afford to use AN hoses and fittings for everything, so I'm only using them in highly visible areas and for bends that would normally require multiple pieces.   I'm also, as in my previous post, attempting to hide the ugly hose-to-hose size changes inside aluminum tubes.  With my 3D printer, it's an easy chore to close up the tube ends.  I'm planning on using colorful braided nylon or stainless steel protectors to cover the hoses running from the aluminum pipe, between the firewall and into the frame, but regular plastic convoluted hose covers would also work quite nicely as well.  Hopefully, when I'm done, the AN fittings will be the only bare heater hoses actually exposed.  All the rubber hoses and clamps will be under cover.

Here's where I'm starting from.  I'll post more pics as I go along.  Hopefully there'll be an improvement.

Well, the picture posted upside down (iPod photo).  I won't take the time to change it, so anything I post from now on will look better, ergo, an improvement:0

Bruce