BN2 Parts sources

Haven't seen an ad from him in few years but Arkady Mirvis "the heater guy" in Hopatcong, NJ heaterman@nac.net used to restore them and must have a supply chain.

There is a place in Canada too-

http://www.germansupply.com/ho...mer/home.php?cat=376

And this guy on SAMBA -

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/cla...etail.php?id=1388180

Often easier to buy a spare unit.  

Gordon,

I attempted to contact Ark Mirvis from NJ #(347-324 0552) a couple of times... but never got a response.

I think it was Doug Allen in Maine who later told me that he thought Mirvis had passed away

Thanks guys, I'll follow those down.  And I have heard a similer opinion on Ark Mirvis not being around any more.

These little heaters are surprisingly compact and very surprisingly complex.  Should be a lot of fun getting it going again.

Thanks!

gn

I sold mine to Lenny C. when knew I was moving to Sunny FL.  Wonder how he made out with it? Probably able to toast Smores as he tools to Carlisle!

I have to say, after moving the vents to the rear bulkheads, my car now heats up faster than my water-cooled daily drivers.  Even in Michigan, I couldn't justify adding an Espar.

Well, not having anything for heater boxes and selling the house in the sunny south (where I didn't need them) necessitates me getting something in there to comfortably stretch the usual 5 months of driving in New England into 7-8 months so this is gonna be it.  Where I mount this rocket is yet to be determined.  What I'm trying to do now is understand what is involved in their operation and service and get this one going on the bench and then I'll think about where it's going and how to direct the air.  Past experience tells me that a BN 2 in a speedster should produce about three times more heat than is needed so I'll be all set (this one came from a type 3 with a cabin much bigger than a Speedster.  Heck!  I'll be toasty even with all of the various air leaks in there!!

Every time I see the notation: "BN2", it catches my eye.  That's the model of the 56 Healey, 100-4.  The only year they made 4-cyl, 4-speed.  You know how it goes with car descriptions--the more arcane the better for the real snobs.  The Porsche purists are rumored to have a school where they teach the students all the Porsche nomenclature, model types, seral numbers, Ferdy history, etc., slapping the ruler on the hands of those who provide the wrong answer.   Kind of reminds me of the nuns in the bad old days. 

Related link from Samba re: heater manuals:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/arc...anuals/heater_ac.php

Awe Gordon, I didn't realized that you had no heater boxes.  Makes sense now.

Gordon, FYI: Top up, you will roast pretty well. On the way to the pumpkin run, I am usually in a T-shirt and regulate my temp with clothes layers! It would be great to be able to throttle the heat, so to speak. Top down, you will be comfortable at 45mph and 40 degrees or so. 50 mph plus you will get chilly if it is less than 40 or 45 out. But I like the heat at night at Carlisle, 50 to 55 degrees and toasy with it on!

I am in the research phase on using a microcontroller and software to run the heater, and possibly have some temperature control. Think Arduino or Picaxe....

Gordon,

    Do you need some heater boxes ? I have some that I can bring to Carlisle if you want them. I took them off Maggie's JPS Coupe in the fall and installed some that I bought from JS for $300.00. They do have innards not just hollow ones.

Chuck

Chuck, I would bet Gordon needs 1 5/8" heater boxes, his motor is pretty far from stock.

Oh, OK thanks Danny. Just trying to help. See you at Carlisle Danny.

Chuck

Looking forward to it Chuck. Maggie is accompanying you, correct?

Helping is good!

Yes, she will be driving her coupe and I will be driving the VS.

Hey!  All you followers of post-menupausal heat flashes........

Yes, the reason I've gone to a gas heater is two-fold:  I do, indeed, have 1-5/8" exhaust pipes and, even though I looked closely at a stock heater box and did a forensic analysis on it, those crafty VW designers, cousins of "Hans and Fritz" of yesteryear, managed to mold an aluminum heat sink around a curved pipe, so boring it out to accept a bigger OD J-Pipe was a non-starter.

The other fold in the equation is also two-fold, the main fold being that I LOVE the thrill of living so close to the edge by using a heater that runs on Gasoline in a flammable plastic car.  I mean, can't you just FEEL the thrill??  One leak in the wrong place and POOF!......Well, you get the idea.  But the other fold on that fold is that I've ridden long distances in VW sedans and VW buses that had gas heaters and they REALLY HEAT.  You get used to riding in a bus in the winter with the windows down - so un-VW-like, right?  A VW with heat is like an anachronism.  VW's didn't get reliable heat until the late 1970's when they went to water cooling.....

So, Danny......based on Mrs. Stones 'Ski Bus' driving us out with heat on ski trips when I was a kid, the BN2 could certainly benefit from some sort of heat modulation or a mixing of warm and cold air after the heating source (we found on her bus that running the heater, opening the front kick panel vents and closing all but the rearmost side windows did the trick).  Unfortunately, because the BN2 is a powered, forced-air heater, that makes it more difficult, but I'm working on it.  First, I just have to get this thing working correctly and then I'll look at how to modulate it.  It looks like thermostat-controlled off/on will probably win out, but we'll see.  The damn thing looks like a Rocket sitting on my bench - Maybe I can get Kelly Frazer involved??  I wonder if the North Koreans know about these things??

Gordo,

If you contain the fuel in a fixed volume and allow the combustion products to exit through a small-ish orifice, sometimes called a nozzle, then you will discover a goodly thrust will be developed.  If that opening is, say, one of the rear windows, then I figure that vehicle will get to near Mach 1 in short order, depending on how much gas leaked into the cab, and how many people (how much mass) is inside and if the other windows hold.  In  the case of the Speedster, I am afraid the soft top is just not going to work as a containment barrier, and all you will realize upon ignition will be a rather bright and hot ball of fire through the roof.

Hope this helps . . .

I would answer, but I'm laughing so hard I can hardly type!

"Ok, now that was funny, I don't care who you are."

Larry the Cable Guy

Yeah, that was pretty funny!  But that is one reason I installed a Halon system in my Spyder, three jets, one at each carb and one aimed right at the heater!

Good idea about mixing fresh air, Gordon. I may be able to do that by piping from my front grill to the heater hot air exit.