PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - 1939 Studebaker coupe express

First day of spring was yesterday? Temperatures where not bad up here in eastern Canada. Then it got cold again a few days ago. I judge real spring when I notice a few motorcycles out on the road.

Are you using the heater core in an aftermarket air conditioning unit? If it includes one. Most older vehicles have their heater cores well under the bottom of the dash. Young people today may not realize that in some cases they were an option. If it is an aftermarket combination installation or product it may have a defect.

If your heater core is original and really low it might present some resistance to hot coolant flow. I wonder if Mercedes had a less than average flow rate with their heater setup. As the axillary pump was used. Put a heater core lower and the problem could be worse without one.

I would pull the hoses off the engine and blow through the lines and core. If it is fairly easy to do. You may need a pump of some sort.

I get fair flow using a low mounted heater core and fan unit as originally provided. Possibly optional in 1939. It does have defrost leads and they are needed even in summer weather. Supplied from the chev 327 engine. I know the hoses and core plus control valve are clear. I need or would like even more heat.

Decided years ago it would benefit from a heater loop water pump as well. To get there. Never installed one but it would make a major difference I think. It may even be because the effective core area in those heater cores may have been small. Interior volume of the car is large.

The vehicles not that long before then had no heaters remember. So perhaps at the time expected heating was limited. For the life of me I cannot remember how good the heater was in my stock 39 ford all those years ago either.

Things that come to mind quickly. An old heater core that needs flow checked. An air pocket remaining in the coolant system blocking flow. A heater control valve that has disintegrated internally with age. A less than optimum heater fluid flow design on the Mercedes engine.

It is kind of abnormal to have or need an axillary pump in the heater loop normally. Last have a look for a kinked heater hose. A tight loop in a hose might kink. When a little heat gets the hose hot. On an original setup this is considered. When you are building a car perhaps less so. Easy to check.

Had a mid size ford In the 1960s that gave me a run for my money on a low heat situation. Such a simple thing was a real pain in the posterior at the time.

The new 2000 jetta diesel had a very poor heater from new. All the dealers kept claiming was the engine was not making enough heat. The reality is the messed up the heater supply system design. I never heard of a fix.

Even years later they started putting glow plugs into the system to get some heat. A company you wonder about. Their previous engine had a heater system that could burn your skin. It was like a small blast furnace and the engine provided heat very fast after a cold morning start. Maybe drive a thousand feet and you had some noticeable amount.

I think I remember they had a separate heat containment system for the engine head until it warmed up. So you did not have to heat up the whole engine to get hot coolant for the heater.

Another thing I did with the heater in the 39 buick. The car was converted to 12 volts. I do not remember how I Isolated one of the 6 volt motors from ground.

I wired the two similar sized motors with similar sized fans in series. One fan fed the defrosters and the other was for general heat originally. That at least seemed to work out okay as the fans are not really that strong. I figured I would get more heat than otherwise and would not have to install 12 volt motors.

At times I do not know how I live with myself. I used to in my younger days tell the ladies that I was not cheap but easy.

As I look in the mirror I realize today that it would not be the truth. I am cheap and sometime difficult in certain situations. Tying two 6 volt motors in series brought it to mind. Just to avid buying two twelve volt motors?

My earliest experience with car heaters was somewhat unusual. I am in fairly heavy traffic on an early expressway. I am driving a four year old semi customized 1954 Plymouth with two young ladies in the front seat with me.

It is 1958. It is cold and the heater is on.. The rheostat that controls the speed of the heater fan motor is mounted on the lower edge of the dash. It starts to smoke. I turn it down or off and it continues to smoke. Not bad but smoking.

I work over to the slow lane and there is an area I see where I can just get off the road on to a limited narrow shoulder area. Just wide enough to get the car onto.

As I am just getting off the highway in a hurry. The rheostat bursts into flame. Again not a signifigant amount. Yet I realize I have to put it out quick though.

The instant the car comes to a complete stop. The young ladies bail out of the passenger door into the deep mud along the shoulder. As I lean over and blow out the flame and pull a wire off the back of the rheostat.

To me it was a very small flame at best. Hard to say just how the girls visualized the situation. Car was going to blow up?

In any event they were in a total panic when they bailed. That I think was a factory mounted heater control. Had it been installed higher up in the dash. The car just might have burnt. Perhaps not though as padded dashes were still in the future.

It took Tom's heater issue to prompt this from my memory. I had forgotten about it. There may have been a slight chance something else did as well.

I had mounted a floor gear shifter conversion in the car. They were popular back then. Shifting gears with two girls in the front bench seat I also remember. Even stranger I have a photo of that dash and conversion in place still somewhere. I used to photograph various changes I made to some of the cars.