We’ve just completed a couple of maintenance procedures on our van’s Espar D2 Diesel Heater and then capped those off with an upgrade that should help alleviate the problem that created the need for this maintenance in the first place. Here’s what’s been happening…
White Smoke
About a year and a half into its service life, our heater began having episodes of spewing thick white smoke from its exhaust pipe and requiring multiple startup attempts before finally firing up – this would repeat until finally on the third attempt it would successfully fire up and begin heating our van.
Fuel Filter Replacement
We searched the internet and found that one possible remedy was to replace the fuel filter. Our heater burns diesel that it draws from the van’s fuel tank. We chose this system to avoid the need for a separate fuel source for the heater. We installed a fuel line from the tank to the heater that uses the heater’s own fuel pump, and just inside the inlet fitting on that pump, is a small, easily replaceable fuel filter. Using just a few simple tools this operation can be completed in less than 30 minutes. Here’s what you’ll need – (Note: This post contains affiliate links. We may earn compensation when you click on the links at no additional cost to you.)
- Replacement filter
- 17mm wrench
- 12mm wrench
- Pliers
- Slotted screwdriver
- 90 degree Precision Pick
- Paper towels
- Latex gloves (optional)
Rather than go into it in detail here, we instead invite you to watch the video we made showing how to do this, here:
You can buy the fuel filter for yourself at this link.
That solved the problem for a short time, but before long the white smoke was back. Again we went back to the internet and found a couple more fixes we could try:
Atomizer Screen and Igniter
These are 2 parts that work closely with one another and are relatively easy to get to and replace. The atomizer screen can become clogged with soot and fail to operate correctly. Once this happens, carbon can begin to build up on the end of the glow plug (igniter) and then it too can fail to operate correctly. You need to open up the outer housing on the heater and remove the control unit, and then they are quite easy to replace. Again, we have a video to show how to do this:
If you want to do this, here are some things that will get you started:
- Espar D2 Atomizer Screen (it comes with an installer tool to make installation easy.) We also bought a surplus of screens
- Espar D2 Glow Plug (Igniter) (the igniter also comes with a slotted socket, which is necessary for removal and installation.)
- To remove the control unit: Torx T-20 Screwdriver
- Some tools to help remove the clogged atomizer screen: Precision pick set with screwdrivers and Needle nose pliers
- You should also have some “pipe cleaner” brushes like this to clean out the carbon and soot.
Replacing these parts helped a lot, although we will need to do this again before long and we might go a bit deeper next time as we still get the white smoke occasionally.
The upgrade we referred to at the beginning of this post, is one that we wish we would have known about when we first installed the heater. We were traveling at some quite high elevations last winter, up in the Rockies above 7,500 feet of elevation and we believe this might be where our white smoke problem began.
High Altitude Kit
Had we known about and installed one of these in the beginning, we might not have the white smoke problem now. As altitude increases, the air gets thinner and thinner, resulting in less oxygen. This causes fuel mixtures to run rich, which is not good. A rich mixture means there is too much fuel for the available oxygen and as a result, the fuel does not burn completely. This causes carbon build up (soot). And soot causes white smoke in this case.
Enter the High Altitude Kit. This unit has an air pressure sensor that accurately measures altitude and adjusts the fuel/air mixture accordingly. This fits in between the heater and the control unit, and you guessed it – we have a video explaining it all right here:
You can get yours at this link. If you are still building out your van and still installing your heater, we strongly recommend you go ahead and install this as well right from the start.
For our part, we’ll be cranking the heat way up frequently now as we’ve heard that helps burn some of the carbon build up. However, we’re also good to go back up to higher elevations now that we’ve upgraded.
Edit: Good news! We’re now about 2 months out after installing the High Altitude Kit (and a fresh atomizer screen) and we’ve not seen the white smoke problem since!