Diesel heater supply

[Mycroft]

My diesel heater was fueled by a tee into the engine supply line. I'd like it to have its own supply to eliminate possible engine supply issues. Anybody know of an easy way of adding some kind of pickup tube to the tank without having a new fitting welded on?

[newhaul]

Run the heater to its own day tank 5 gal should do it

[SailRedemption]

Add a tee to the return line on the tank? Assuming you have a drop tube for that too..

I'm just making a suggestion, I don't have a heater nor know if this would work for sure. Just don't see why it wouldn't.

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[Lepke]

Put a tee after the primary filter. Probably what you have now. You don't need 2 supply lines to the tank. Your heater uses so little fuel your engine won't notice. Most diesels pump several times more fuel than they burn, returning the rest to the tank. If you are having fuel starvation problems you could be sucking air from the heater fuel control, but you'd have heater firing problems. Put a check valve in the heater line.
I have 4 diesels, a boiler and a stove on the main supply line.

[Snowpetrel]

Saw a neat system on one boat. The header tank for the heater was feed by the fuel return line from the main engine, then it overflowed back to the main tank. As long as the engine was run for an hour or so each week the tank stayed full with perfectly polished fuel.

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[Mycroft]

Yes, the heater was teed into the supply line after the primary filter. It worked just fine.

However, I would rather eliminate the chance of sucking air from the heater line at the most inconvenient time. A check valve might be an option if I can't add a tube to the tank.

Definitely don't want to add a day tank.

[hpeer]

I had just that problem at a very inconvenient time.

On one boat I teed into the engine return line at the top of the tank. It is connected to a pick up tube.

The other thing to do is to convert the return line to a dedicated heater pick up and the run the engine return to a tee to the vent. Although. I suspect the rule police will find something wrong with that.

[transmitterdan]

You might consider leaving the tee as is. Add a valve between the tee and the heater fuel pump. Close the valve when you don't need heat or if you think there is a problem. The diesel heater pump acts as a check valve.

[IdoraKeeper]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

You might consider leaving the tee as is. Add a valve between the tee and the heater fuel pump. Close the valve when you don't need heat or if you think there is a problem. The diesel heater pump acts as a check valve.

Yes!!!

[Jon Eisberg]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

You might consider leaving the tee as is. Add a valve between the tee and the heater fuel pump. Close the valve when you don't need heat or if you think there is a problem. The diesel heater pump acts as a check valve.

Yup, that's the setup I have, it works fine...

For the OP, if you're routinely running your heater when the engine is running, you really ought to consider the addition of a forced air bus heater running off the engine's FW cooling loop...

Far more efficient, these systems can really crank out some heat, and are a very affordable upgrade... Highly recommended...

[Mycroft]

Thanks guys. I might have provided more info. I do have a valve before the heater pump. After going through the ABYC, I just thought it might be more prudent to not have the tee.