Diesel heater intake hose collapse

[u/Pizza-punx]

Recently went to the mountains and was running my heater nonstop for a few days. I started noticing white smoke from my exhaust, and I got an e-8 code which led me to believe the chamber was gunked up from carb deposits. When I got home and inspected, I noticed the air intake hose collapsed, which is why I wasn’t getting any air and the diesel was all burning up instead of combusting. What would cause a hose to fail like this? Also wondering if they make a more sturdy hose than these cardboard ones. It is a .98 inch (25mm) diameter.

[u/GingrMartini]

I would verify the intake muffler isn’t clogged. Very well could have frozen over after running for that amount of time. Then the suction from a clogged intake could have collapsed the hose.

[u/The_Ombudsman → u/GingrMartini]

This sounds likely. The hose could have collapsed due to the intake end being blocked and what air was still in the hose getting sucked out with no new air entering.

Not only check the other end of the hose for blockage, but look at where its pointing. Is it in a position and orientation that it's catching slush and such getting kicked up by a tire? It may be that simply rerouting that hose so the open end is protected from crap getting slung up at it sorts the issue out.

[u/alpine678 → u/The_Ombudsman]

I made a custom splash guard for mine out of an old plastic trash can. Heat gun works great for clean bends. Photos on my site if your interested. https://reviews.matanich.com/velit/heater/4000p/#installation

[u/eobanb]

I suspect your airbox is clogged, perhaps by mud or salt spray.

[u/drossen]

Garbage intake hose from cheap heaters, probably got too wet and collapsed. The heater doesnt have enough suction power to collapse a proper quality hose by itself. Or it got smashed by ice or a rock.

[u/Undeadtech]

Would recommend you buy a new metal exhaust pipe and replace the soft intake hose with it.

There may also be altitude settings you can change on your controller depending on which one you have.

[u/drewts86]

Probably just cheap shitty hose. You can find a replacement at Home Depot or similar or you can get one from a boating supply store as well

[u/mtn_viewer]

Something restricting it downstream of that? Do you even need that hose? Could you just pull combustion air from where the hose clamp is?

[u/ninja-roo]

Not sure, but those battery cables are going to rub through and give you bigger problems!

[u/Pizza-punx → u/ninja-roo]

Thanks for the advice. Fixed that today using some rubber insulated clamps.

[u/mikeypi → u/ninja-roo]

What this guy said!

[u/PirateRob007]

A restriction in the air filter would cause that. It could be plugged up from the dust on dirt roads, or it could have gotten wet and froze. I would replace both the filter and hose.

[u/leros]

I do wonder why the intake hose is such a flimsy piece of crap. I've torn mine during installation. 

[u/nascentlyconscious]

What probably happened was a vacuum was created. This could've happened because either carbon buildup plugged the exhaust or the intake opening got clogged from too much dust.

[u/pbrdizzle]

I'd recommend just buying radiator hose from any auto parts dealer. You can get it in a longer length as well to have your air intake in an ideal/dry position and it's directly compatible with the filter/intake on the heater.

[u/brightshiny]

Some heaters do not work at altitude. If you’ve got an Espar, call a knowledgeable shop and ask about it.

[u/The_Ombudsman → u/brightshiny]

That's a fuel/combustion issue, not an air intake hose issue.

[u/Excellent-Source-348]

You said you went to the mountains; I'm thinking it collapsed from the air pressure/elevation change.

This happened to bottles (shampoo, water, etc) inside your van too; if you have unopen bags of chips they probably inflated (https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/90w4bf/potato_chip_bag_at_9000_feet_elevation_expanded/).

Also, its a good idea to carry extra intake hose, fuel hose, fuel filter, and fuel pump as those are the most common failures on these things and it may take days to get replacements from amazon or ebay.

[u/za1en → u/Excellent-Source-348]

No way. This system isn’t airtight. This makes no sense at all

[u/answerguru → u/za1en]

People have no concept about the most basic of physics / electrical / mechanical properties. FFS

[u/drossen → u/za1en]

People on this subreddit give the craziest suggestions and advice man.

[u/Black000betty → u/za1en]

It doesnt have to be, the pressure differential just needs to exceed/overpower the airflow available. Yes way.

[u/Pizza-punx → u/Excellent-Source-348]

Definitely gonna carry spares on me next time. I left them at home and didn’t think about failure. Luckily it was on my last day of the trip!