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MG MG Y Type - Cockpit heater

Living in the Great White North, I was absolutely APPALLED to discover that the Y I imported from the United Kingdom had no cockpit heater! Indeed, one of my goals in acquiring a Y was to be able to extend the vintage motoring season at both ends, ie: to start on April 1 and to end on November 30.

I saw that NTG is offering a heater (#B849) which sells for 217£ / 450$US / 302 Euros.

I found a VERY well made heater of similar compact size made by Siroco of Lyon, France. And it sells for 4 times less!

Siroco: http://www.siroco.fr/

Bali Heater specifications: http://www.siroco.fr/Fiches%20tech2/CHAUFFAGE/BALI%20.pdf

Siroco doesn't seem to sell retail. Maybe if you contact them, they will direct you to a retail distributor in Europe.

As for America, here is the distributor's Web page: http://www.southernrods.com/categories/heating-and-cooling/heaters/products/product-867.html

By the way, my calculations as to the length of the Canadian vintage motoring season were right on the mark this year. On December 3, we received 35 cm of snow. So this officially concludes 2007 as far as we are concerned.
Gilles Bachand

Correct link for the Bali Heater specs:
http://www.siroco.fr/Fiches tech2/CHAUFFAGE/BALI .pdf
Gilles Bachand

I thought about fitting a second-hand Clayton heater, but won't because I don't seem to be using the car too much in the colder months.
If you are not concerned about "period originality" you should have a good look at the very compact heater unit from the "classic" Mini; I think it should fit in the Y.
Willem van der Veer

Heaters were after market accesories. They were as well for many North American cars of the late 30s/40s. My YT had an Arnolt type heater fitted by the dealer. It was too big to fit under the battery box so sat in the front passenger footwell and took too much space. It was as well pretty inefective so in my 1970s rebuild I took it out.
A few years ago I found an original Smiths heater on ebay and fitted it as per Let there be Y's page 76. It works but if you think that you will get a blast of hot air as from a heater in a modern car you will be dissapointed.But with the top up and the side curtains on after 2-3 miles the car is quite comfortable. Terry

Terry O'Brien

In the UK many of us obtained the tiny recirculatory heater from the Morris Minor/1000. They can still be had from Morris Minor specialists, and fit neatly under the battery box in the later YA and YB.

NC.
Neil Cairns

My YB has a Smiths heater which I think was probably fitted when the car was new as an extra. The knob for the rheostat was missing but I found exactly the right one marked "heater" at Beaulieu. Now everything works except it only emits cold air! Should be easy to rectify but have been concentrating on more essential tasks
G H Wilson

Back in the 60s when my YT was my only car I added an aftermarket heater under the driver's seat. It was flat and relatively wide with the fan drawing air in from the top. With top and sidecurtains up it did make things much more comfortable, but was not up to the 17 deg F temperatures I was in at one time.

FWIW

Larry
49 YT
Larry Hallanger

It seems that the Smiths heater fitted to my YB apparently from new or certainly from the 50's can never have worked properly because the pipes are not connected to appropriate points in the cooling circuit. Can anyone advise exactly where the heater pipes should fit?
Regards
Geoffrey
G H Wilson

Here are a bunch of photos attached to the following posts. This one shows the connection of the pipe TO the heater.

Paul Barrow

This is where the hoses should go through the firewall.

Paul Barrow

Thisone shows where the return hose connects.

Paul Barrow

This one shows (hopefully) how it all comes together inside the car. These are the original 'after-market' Smiths heater.

Paul Barrow

There is also a PDF file on fitting a heater to your Y in the Reprinted Articles section of the Y website at http://www.mgytypes.org.

Paul
Paul Barrow

I have been meaning to fit my Smiths heater for the last 25 years - I might just fit a cigar lighter socket and buy one of those electric ones you plug in - mind you then it would be a drain on the dynamo no doubt and I would need to fit an alternator...oh well Merry Christmas everyone particularly the stalwarts who keep this site going.
David Mullen

Paul-
Looking at your photo, does the verticle channel at the top connect to a slot in the wood trim above dash/under windscreen, so as to act as a defroster? Had a slot in one of my YAs, with nothing attached from below.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

Safety Fast

Paul
Paul Gaynor

Thanks very much for all the helpful info and particularly Paul's excellent photos. With all that even a poor mechanic like me can hardly fail to get the heater working so I look forward to warmer winter motoring.
Merry Christmas to all
Regards
Geoffrey Wilson
G H Wilson

Hi All

It isn't my car but I took the photographs fully of someone else's car back in 1998 - pre website days (if you can imagine that!!) fully meaning to fit a Smiths heater I had acquired.

From memory the vertical squared bit just vented into the car to supply some heat in an upward direction in addition to that being blown around your feet and straight out onto the road through the gaps in the floor boards. After careful consideration of how utterly ineffectual such a heater would be in the Y I never got around to it. To this day the stuff sits in a box in my shop. Maybe one day I'll do something with it ... but not today!

Paul
Paul Barrow

It is a heater line of my Y-type.

http://mixi.jp/view_album.pl?id=8934345&mode=photo
XPAG Masaaki Sakaguchi


It is a heater line of my Y-type.

http://roppatu.hp.infoseek.co.jp/cgi-bin/img-box/img20071223231025.jpg
XPAG Masaaki Sakaguchi

A Smith heater unit is on eBay at http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MG-TD-heater-case_W0QQitemZ280185003361QQihZ018QQcategoryZ27380QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

No connection with the seller.

Paul
Paul Barrow

The picture of the Y-type (for XPAG) heater valve which I made.
XPAG Masaaki Sakaguchi

valve

XPAG Masaaki Sakaguchi

Nice piece of work, Masaaki!
Thanks,
Scott
Scott Barrow

This thread was discussed between 04/12/2007 and 24/12/2007

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