Eberspacher DA6

[funkbus]

Greets from Kidderminster !

Am just in the process of rescuing an ex german airforce T3 from Berlin - presently armed with an Eberspacher DA6 !

Whilst I have some experience in restoring the earlier petrol BN4 model, I need to start familiarising myself with the DA6. Can anyone here please therefore point me to an online workshop / maintenance manual ?

Thanks,

Steve W.

[Oldiebut goodie]

Never seen a DA6 manual in the wild - use the BA6 and adapt your thinking with what you have as they are basically the same. Clearest manual for the BA6 is in the Bentley Vanagon manual. PM me for a link for a download, the manual covers the non-turbo 1.6 diesel engine also.

[Oldiebut goodie]

I lie - I do have a German DA6 manual also!

[Oldiebut goodie]

Personally I would delete it and install a modern unit, spares are non-existent or expensive for dubious secondhand. They are heavy on fuel and battery power and are unsuitable for use unless the engine is running. I think that they were limited to 15 minutes running whilst stationary. The output is high - around 6Kw, power consumption is around 4 x that of a modern heater, fuel consumption is around 1 litre per hour, 2Kw to 3Kw is more than enough heating for these vans unless you live in Finland or Russia type climate.

[davidoft1]

I’ve used mine loads, waaaayyy better than most modern heaters, to much heat? Nah, they are pretty robust parts aren’t that hard to find, I’ve run mine all night without a leisure battery and still states the engine in the morning

[Oldiebut goodie]

I am surprised that you have a DA6 as they were mainly for cold climes - unless you imported it from Scandinavia/Eastern Europe. Our vans were served by the B2L and D2l models more than adequately.
DA6 - 8 Amps per hour power requirement. 1 litre per hour fuel. Crazy running a heater like that on these vans. They may well be robust but how many heat exchangers has it had ( they are supposed to be changed every 10 years) I bet that yours has never been changed.I only used 3.2Kw on my 508D bus which was easily 3 x the volume of a T25.
How anyone could sleep with 6Kw running overnight is beyond belief. ( Without taking into consideration the noise as the DA6/BA6 were designed to be used as a supplement to the vehicle heater at start up like the Webasto BBW/DBW 46 coolant models not as night heaters)

[funkbus]

Hi -

Many thanks for your response and offer of assistance. Have been trying to contact you via PM but, cannot seem to get the pm feature to work on my computer !

Incidentally, your subsequent comments on the DA6 performance strike a chord. Have restored a few late 60`s BN4 heaters and 1950`s `Swingfire` heaters (12 kW miniaturised pulse jet engine !) and clearly, fuel economy was not the primary objective in those days. The BN4 in my VW181 is also very heavy on battery drain.

Look forward to hearing from you,

Regards

Steve

[Oldiebut goodie]

delete your email above

[Oldiebut goodie]

[Syncronorth]

I agree with Oldiebut goodie that the noise, power and fuel consumption make it a bad solution for sleeping. I think the BA6 / DA6 is great for heating your car quickly before you go on a drive, but for an overnight heater the B2L / B2D is a better option.

Brickwerks actually have the DA6 in stock
https://www.brickwerks.co.uk/eberspache ... rness.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Oldiebut goodie]

I wonder where they picked those up from. Not the easiest of things to track down, as they say good if you have all the rest of the gubbins. ( look at the weight - 25Kg! )

[Syncronorth]

Price seems reasonable, but maybe second hand webasto and eberspacher units and parts is getting cheaper and easier to get hold of with all the cheap Chinese heaters that's available now? Anyway I would buy it from brickwerks if I had one or two controllers laying around, it's a quality product.

I would guess it is around 8kg? 25 kg can't be correct?

[Oldiebut goodie]

I can only find the weight of a BN4 and that is 11Kg so would expect the DA6 to be hitting around 18 -19 then I should think that the Brickwerks listing is including the weight of that large harness, looking at the length of it it will need to be fairly heavy gauge wire which will add the rest.