[Chainman1]

So I installed a Espar B4L in my 2020 transit, under the passenger seat and have a problem with the heater starting when I am at elevation.

I live in Boise ID, at around 3k feet elevation, when down here in the valley my heater starts 99% of the time without issues. When I travel to my local ski area around 6800K feet the heater NEVER starts first try and generally will take around 30+ minutes of trying to get the thing started. Once it does starts at elevation, it will run absolutely fine stopping and starting. When I got back down in elevation it also will always start fine, and then back up to elevation I again have the problem.

Ive completely taken apart the entire gas line from the pickup in the tank all the way to the heater, ensuring rise, fittings, etc are perfect... still have the same problem of getting it started at elevation.

Heatso has been sorta OK to work with, but I feel like they dont really know either. They will be sending me a new ECU (when they get them in a couple weeks).

Has anyone had this problem, is there a trick to getting it started I could use until i get the root cause sorted?

Appreciate any pointers!

If you are only having problems at elevation, it seems like it must be a air fuel issue. have you verified the fuel pump screen is clean? What exact codes are you getting? Is it throwing a "H1 service" error and or "fuel pump/ fuel supply" on display"? Code 128, 129 are the flame failure codes, if I remember right. My issue was the heater was inconsistent at 2K feet elevation, so definitely not the same situation as yours.
Here is a summation from my experience with the B4L, and advice from Esparbacher technicians. Buy a quart of kerosene and run the heater for 20 minutes. My heater would run great with kerosene and I disconnected the tank line to the fuel pump and and attached a short fuel line to the bottle. This verified to me, that there were no air links at the bottom of the heater connections.It also seemed to help my no start issue, at least for a few attempts. After 4-5 gas feed starts after the kerosene run, it would be back to its old tricks of "huffing and puffing" without firing consistently and throwing H1 service.. The real problem, according to Esparbacher, is that gasoline cavitates much more than other fuels, causing air in the fuel and ignition failure. If you have the clear fuel line you may be able to see air bubbles in the line on start up. I have the blue fuel line so I can't verify this troubleshooting aid? Check the software version on your ECU. There should be a sticker on it, I needed SW version 04 to finally make the fuel pump deliver the correct quantity of fuel. I was only getting 2-3 mills of fuel with the old ECU and NEW fuel pump. There may be other air/fuel quantity parameters that Esparbacher has modified in the new firmware to solve issues at elevation. I have had success at 7K with the new SW version. Good luck, I know how frustrating this can be.

 

[Chainman1]

Update on my Espar saga: I got an unexpected call from Mike who is the lead Espar trainer for North America. Apparently, when I thought the support guys had essentially blown me off, they forwarded the email string to Mike. Mike said he is the last resort for the support folks. Mike clearly has far more hands-on experience and real-world knowledge with the heaters. He'll be doing training locally in a few weeks and even offered to meet with me if we don't have the issue resolved by then.

We went through some troubleshooting and he did identify an installation error that I made. He said this is actually the most common mistake installers make. The test is to unplug the heater from the harness and measure the resistance between pins 1 & 3 on the main harness connector. The reading must be 60Ω but 58-62 is tolerable. Mine was 118Ω. He identified that I was likely missing the 120Ω resistor on the EasyStartPro connector. Fortunately, I had saved it in my parts box and plugged it into the extra EasyStartPro connector and then the reading went to 60.2Ω. Fortunately, or unfortunately I wasn't experiencing any of the issues that usually come about when this happens, so the behavior of my heater did not change. Anyway, it is good to know that my install seems to be validated.

He made a point that the harness is super susceptible to EMF radiation from other wires and be sure to not zip tie the Espar harness to any other wires and to keep the harness as isolated as possible.

Next time I talk to him, I'll ask about the lithium battery issue.

Now to the problem at hand. He felt that the reason my heater is susceptible to the heat buildup under the heater is that there is too much vapor in the fuel line between the pump and the heater. Essentially, the pump is working too hard pulling fuel, causing excessive cavitation. I did the gas can test again, this time with a shorter fuel supply line and there did seem to be fewer bubbles coming from the pump. While under the van, I saw that I could reroute and shorten the supply side of the fuel line by about 10" and made that adjustment. That did not seem to change anything noticeably, but it is currently so cold out that the same levels of heat that I experienced before would not build up under the heater and trigger the shutdown. I'll test that again when it warms up a bit outside.

Mike reinforced what a number of you have already said, it is harder for the pump to pull than to push. The closer I can get the pump to the source, the better. While under the van this morning, I saw that I can move the fuel pump upstream by about 18" so that the pump will essentially be at the side of the fuel tank just next to the sending unit location. That will likely be my next move when the weather clears.

Happy New Year!

Glad to hear you have a contact with Mike. He was very recepive to my issues, and sent me a new fuel pump and ECU with the current SW last year. Hopefully things are heading in the right direction!

 

[Chainman1]

My van must have heard me being a crab apple recently. Didn't run last night but all day running at Berthoud Pass today. Takes 5 times to start but once it is running we are happy.

You might try running the heater on kerosene, either as a temporary fix or a long range solution. Esparbaucher had me do that during troubleshooting and I considered adding a small tank to run the heater. Luckily, i got a replacement fuel pump and a new ECU with software V4 and my problems seem to be gone (under 10K). Kerosene won't cavitate like gasoline and the heater runs great with it as a fuel.