Homemade dredge heater, looking for tips and criticisms.

[425jesse]

Working on adding heat to my mini 4" Dahlke. The exhaust port on the engine has 1/2" threads, so I was thinking....
Then extend with copper...
Wrap with soft copper...

And pipe out to tempering/steam tank, then out to wetsuit. Anyone out there tried this with any reasonable success? This is all with stuff from in my garage and around my shop. You see I have reattached the muffle at the end to slightly hinder exhaust flow hoping it will heal copper better. Last step would be to wrap the coppers in thermal tape to prevent cooling.

Comment and criticisms/helpful advice appreciated!

 

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[Hoser John]

From the engine use flex exhaust to go to the heater bolted onto the frame. The units that have all that weight hanging off a couple of threads into the head rattle loose,tear out the threads and viola your heads are right there. Hold a 1 lb weight straight out for 10 minutes-now hold to your side. EXACT same science. You'll need a holding pot to retain at least a half gallon of water to eliminate your chances of getting a blast of hot water and welding your buns shut. When you start/stop your temps will vary IMMENSELY. Many threads on this forum on this subject just looksie and be amazed-John

 

[LRC253]

Jesse, you ever get yours built? I have a good layout from MikeMike but since I don't have a welder I'm stuck for now on the simple exhaust flange to copper or stainless pipe. I'll look into flex though, thanks Hoser.

 

[russau]

I know this is a older thread BUT Id also like to see what he came up with for a heater. IMHO using copper for the exhaust would be a bad idea because when repeated heating of this metal will crystalize it and eventually crack. Johns idea of using S.S. flex to a holding tank that's bolted to the frame for support is the way to go! OR just buy from Action Mineing and be done with a proven system.

 

[425jesse]

Hey guys, so here is the story on that heater. We took it out for testing on a 25 degree or so day, fired it all up, and got warm water at idle at about a drips pace. As soon a I throttled up to running speed, it was cold cold cold. I ended up doing the old 25' of copper inside a paint can, with the exhaust dumping into the can and warming the copper. The reserve I built was about 1/2 a gallon with a steam release. Simple, cheap effective. Now if only we hadn't gotten covered in snow, could have tried it out...so yes it's built, but I recently took it off the dredge, as I won't use it during the summer. LCR-we need to go wash some rocks!