Red90's Land Rover Defender Heater Upgrade - Overview

The Defender is well known for having a poor heater.  You may have heard me state in the past that I believe it is actually not that bad.  In my experience, the overall output is on par with a normal car.  The one downside of the stock heater is that the matrix does not have very high efficiency.  This means the difference between the water and air temperature is relatively high so that the engine needs to be quite hot before the heater works well. 

The problems with heating the Defender is normally one of three things:
  1. The heater is adjusted poorly or in bad shape.  The hot cold flap can be out of adjustment  or the seals can be bad.
  2. There is little to no insualtion....  This is a stock design problem.  Adding insulation is a necessity.
  3. There are leaks letting drafts in.  Again another great design feature!!
Despite all of this, I live in Canada.  It gets cold here and there is no such thing as a heater that is too big.  I've dreamt of putting in a heater that puts all other car heaters to shame.  I wanted something that was affordable and easy to source.   There are a few options availble.  I chose the Mobile Climate Control model 12-1203, http://www.mcc-hvac.com/. This is available in Canada from Princess Auto, a nationwide chain, part number 9089533 https://www.princessauto.com/en/36000-btu-12v-auxiliary-heater/product/PA0009089533  The specs........
It fits on a left hand drive truck.  I'm not sure about right hand drive.

My plan is to do this upgrade in three
stages which I will cover at different times.  Click on each title to see that phase.
      1. Heater Install
      2. Outlet Modification
      3. Intake Modification