Victorian plumbing in passenger footwell

[markh1]

The heating plumbing in the footwell to me looks non-standard. Please could someone tell me if it is or not and what the function of the extra pipework is?

In the picture you can see what looks like a small electrical socket. This has wires that run to a switch where the immobiliser key is. From rough memory when I bought the car the garage said it was to allow the aircon and heating to be on at the same time??

[Nefarious]

Apologies for the slight hijack, but I've got a similar job coming up, so two quick questions:

Is that photo of the far end of the passenger footwell (i.e. backing onto the bulkhead)?

Is that plumbing for water or air?

[markh1]

It's all plumbing for water.

[Tanguero]

Decidedly non-standard! The standard plumbing has the two pipes on the right of your picture (from the engine bay) connect directly to the two pipes on the left of your picture (to the heating matrix). I have no idea what your steampunk version does, but in the standard arrangement you can have both the heating and the aircon on simultaneously. That is how you vary the temperature.

ETA
Looking at it - is it possible that the grey metal thing on the left is a supplementary pump of some sort?

[markh1]

So by the looks of it the water does not flow anywhere different, just that there is a pump interrupting the flow?

[ridds]

Was just about to post and say that looks lust like Marks..... ahh bugger, it is yours.

[markh1]

ridds said:

Was just about to post and say that looks lust like Marks..... ahh bugger, it is yours.

I don't know whether or not I should be pleased that you can recognise my plumbing!

[Gazzab]

You two really have formed such a close bond. Reminds me of Fubes and TC.

[markh1]

It's a yellow cerb thing

[FarmyardPants]

Looks to me like a system for circulating the coolant with the engine off. Useful in winter for running the heaters and in summer to prevent hotspots/heatsoak after shutting down. Does it (the pump, switch etc) work?

[Rufus Roughcut]

That looks like an electrically operated valve.

I'm assuming the previous owner decided that during warmer weather they wanted to stop the hot water flowing through the heater matrix.
By closing the valve, the hot water is then routed back to the engine via two 't' pieces and associated pipe work.

[markh1]

Ok well it sounds like the thing to do is connect up 12v to it and see what sort of noise it makes!

[.Mark]

markh1 said:

Ok well it sounds like the thing to do is connect up 12v to it and see what sort of noise it makes!

Only joking

[spongy]

.Mark said:

Only joking

The Big bang theory;)