Mounting the Heater

11 Jan 2005 Mounting the Heater

Update 20210918: I didn’t install the Eggenfellner Subaru engine, so any post that references that can be ignored or used as a cautionary tale about how to avoid wasting many years and $50k.

The Eggenfellner Subaru comes with a heater, which includes a heat exchanger in a box, a 3-speed squirrel fan, and a switch. It seems like it will do the job, and the PIREPs I’ve read say that it works well. The main problem with the heater is that it is kind of big. Of course, you might just argue that the RV8 is kind of small. Whatever, it was a bit tricky to decide on the right place for it.

Originally, I planned to install it with the little coolant barbs sticking through the firewall. However, I decided that this was not such a great idea, since I want to have as few holes as possible in the firewall, and I want to be able to easily remove the heater for maintenance. With the barbs on this side, I should be able to unbolt the heater without disconnecting it from the cooling system. This will be important because the fuel pumps and pre-filters will be just below the heater, and I’m not sure how much space I’ll need to maintain them.

The way I’ve installed this I’m using two screws to attach the heater to angle that is on the firewall, and one screw connected to a stiffener on the forward baggage compartment floor.

Here is the bracket that attaches to the baggage floor stiffener.

Here is the view from the top – note the countersunk screw that attaches to the heater bracket.