Good By Excess Dog House Heat

[TyroneandGladys]

The owner of the auto repair shop that we use for repairs had told me that he could dramatically reduce the amount of engine heat coming into the cab on our RVs Ford chassis by fabricating a air dam and some other modifications for $300.00


We had the work done and on our first trip in hot weather the difference was dramatic.

Bud's Service Center
133 S. Country Club Dr.
Mesa, AZ 85210
480-844-2552

[fortytwo]

The Banks exhaust system was a big help on the early 275 hp V-10's - 97-99. Helped on the 305hp 2000, but not as much. With each improved model of the V-10 Ford has licked more red off Bank's candy to the point improvement, other than the stainless steel components, is hard to measure.

At a couple of recent RV shows, mostly used, I saw several class C's that had carpet or thick padding added to the doghouse. Apparently it's specific to the OEM as I have not been able to find anything like it on the web. Probably have to design and make, or have made, yourself.

Mine (08 E450) is only hot on the passenger side. Floor was also very hot but after I pulled the carpet and installed shiny honeycomb aluminum insulation under the carpet. The floor is still a bit warm, but significantly better.

[pnichols]

klutchdust wrote:
Going to look today to see if anything was added to deflect the heat

I'm very interested in what you find regarding your Ford chassis.

I had to crawl under my E450 and look up with a flashlight under the cab flooring areas to see the large steel heat shields mounted there between the floor and the exhaust pipe sections.

Here's a couple of photos showing our heat shields:

[klutchdust]

No heat problem in my 09 Cambria. Going to look today to see if anything was added to deflect the heat. I wear shorts and moccasins when I drive and it's not an issue.

[garyhaupt]

I put on 5" exhaust piping, and added a Banks Air-ram to my 94-460. That took the temps down considerably. That constriction in the exhaust is killer. It really holds the heat in.


Gary Haupt

[Mich_F]

pnichols wrote:
:h

I can't wrap my brain around going to all the effort and expense of installing heat insulating material instead of merely setting the cab air conditioner controls differently .... or at least trying this approach first.

However, maybe our cab flooring/doghouse heat issue was not as severe to begin with. Our Class C's V10 E450 has metal heat shields installed between the two under-cab-floor exhaust pipe runs and the underside of the cab flooring. These shields have a healthy air space between the floors and shield and between the exhaust pipes and the shield for a good air space insulating affect. I think that Winnebago installed these, but not sure. A Ford dealer said they thought that the shields were not a Ford installed item.

Perhaps this is a construction feature to look for before buying a Class C built on the Ford E350 or E450.

It's now clear why Ford does not install the higher horsepower 3-valve V10 in their E350/E450 vans ... even more heat to get rid of in a confined engine space.

Your suggestion about running the ac on the mix setting sounds interesting. My wife has complained about heat around the passenger seat from the floor, on our previous E350 and our current E450. I have never felt floor heat on the driver's side on either vehicle. The only problem with your suggestion, in my case, is that I normally travel with the dash ac off, and the generator and roof air running. :B

I always thought the main reason they don't put the 3 valve engines in the E series vans was because they wouldn't physically fit. :h

[pnichols]

:h

I can't wrap my brain around going to all the effort and expense of installing heat insulating material instead of merely setting the cab air conditioner controls differently .... or at least trying this approach first.

However, maybe our cab flooring/doghouse heat issue was not as severe to begin with. Our Class C's V10 E450 has metal heat shields installed between the two under-cab-floor exhaust pipe runs and the underside of the cab flooring. These shields have a healthy air space between the floors and shield and between the exhaust pipes and the shield for a good air space insulating affect. I think that Winnebago installed these, but not sure. A Ford dealer said they thought that the shields were not a Ford installed item.

Perhaps this is a construction feature to look for before buying a Class C built on the Ford E350 or E450.

It's now clear why Ford does not install the higher horsepower 3-valve V10 in their E350/E450 vans ... even more heat to get rid of in a confined engine space.

[pegdiver]

We lined the doghouse with the heat shield material back in 2002 (1999 Chevy 454). Made it much cooler in our class A and much quieter. Was still on it when we traded this year.

[IAMICHABOD]

OFDPOS wrote:
Is this a Ford thing or ?
Had the 01 FW Conquest Chevy 7.4 and drove back East to DC and back to Ca. Never noticed any heat coming from the doghouse area at all ?
Have made a couple short overnighters so far in our new to us 05 FW Chevy 6.0 samething ?

Pretty much,I have never had any heat problem on my 06 Chevy 6.0 even when I did a 5 hr run in 100 + degree heat. No need to put the A/C on high and point it at the floor. Comfortable for me and passenger

On a side note,I had a Class A with the same problem of heat from Dog House and floor.As diazr2 did I wrapped the headers and had the same results. Mechanic at Chevy said the same thing, heat had to go somewhere.
I had good luck doing as
mlts22 suggested and put Heatshield fabric under the carpet and lined the inside of doghouse.

[diazr2]

elfhearse wrote:
diazr2 Great....I was planning on wrapping the downpipes (after headers) on my 2012 V10 this weekend

Well like I said experience is an expensive teacher. Maybe you will be luckier than I was. But you know what they say about someone doing something the same way and expecting the results to be different. LOL.. After I got through replacing both headers the guy I bought the headers from said "Well the heat has to go someplace and when you keep it all bottled up it just goes right back into the metal after a while.... Metal fatigue. But if you do do it let me know in a few thousand miles how it is working I would be interested to see how it works out for you.

[pnichols]

We just run the cab air conditioner on the "MIX" setting, with it's fan speed set high - on 3 or 4. With the MIX setting the cold air only comes out of the floor vents and the defroster vents - it no longer comes out from the dash at chest height.

This large amount of air coming out of the floor vents keeps the cab floor area cool. The air coming out of defroster vents is initially shot up high in the cab and quickly sinks down into the cab to gently cool the driver and passenger with no direct cold air blasting at them. You can set the air conditioning temperature at any coolness desired, but you must keep the fan set on 3 or 4. All this works like a charm to eliminate the hot floor.

[OFDPOS]

Is this a Ford thing or ?
Had the 01 FW Conquest Chevy 7.4 and drove back East to DC and back to Ca. Never noticed any heat coming from the doghouse area at all ?
Have made a couple short overnighters so far in our new to us 05 FW Chevy 6.0 samething ?

[mlts22]

Why not just pull up the floor, add a layer of Dynamat on the floorboards (both passenger wells, and under the doghouse) and replace the original flooring? It may not be as awesome as having heat shields, but it does help immensely with heat, especially under the pedals.

[elfhearse]

diazr2 Great....I was planning on wrapping the downpipes (after headers) on my 2012 V10 this weekend

[diazr2]

When I owned my class C I didn't like the heat coming from the dog house. Soooo I got real cute and wrapped the headers in heat tape just like they use on the race cars.Very expensive material. Well it did reduce the heat to the dog house considerably. 3000 miles later I blew out both exhaust headers. Ahhh experience is an expensive teacher. Not saying that's a problem with the way you have delt with it , but just saying heads up.. 🙂