Helton Heat Exchanger a Beauty!

Thanks to all of those people who helped me with the low coolant flow issue in the Nissan ZD30. It is now resolved and the heat switch is the key.

I ordered a Helton shower kit from Tony at Helton. The unit tees into the heater hoses, using the hot coolant to heat shower water via a copper heat exchanger. The unit is great value, being priced below that of any othyer units I've seen which in my view are overpriced.

After I ordered it, Tony rang me and advised the shower unit isn't a good choice for the Patrol as the Patrol has very low coolant flow through the cabin heater. So I ordered what he calls his hot water system and a shower kit.

The unit works brilliantly, delivering hot water to the shower at a good rate. The temperature can be adjusted to a comfortable range with the valve supplied.

I intially had some trouble getting the system to work, not due to any shortcomings on the part of the Helton unit, but simply because at idle the Nissan Patrol (3 Litre) has zero coolant flow to through the heater hoses, and I knew no way to rev the engine without sitting in the car.

I have since found out that there is a heat switch used to bring the ZD30 engine quickly to operating temperature in colder climates ( I live in NQ so have never had cause to use it). The switch revs the engine at about 1200 rpm. I think it may also open the EGR valve, recycling some exhaust to the inlet. (not sure about this). Anyway once this switch is turned on, the coolant flow is more than enough to heat the water.

The hot water system works a treat, delivering lots of hot water to the shower.

The kit consited of everything I needed to install both heat exchanger and shower. Highly recommended, even though it took we a while to sort out operation on the Patrol.

I have no association with Helton.