Engine heater

In cold weather, German tank engines tended to freeze up overnight. The first solution provided in the Tiger was a means to share hot water between a running Tiger and a cold one. But this system was replaced by a direct heating system in February 1944 [2, see 3.4.1.9] .

The new system allowed the engine's cooling water to be heated with a blowtorch. This was done through a new hole in the rear plate, at lower left. The hole was normally concealed by a steel cover. In this photo, the heater port is at the right.

The cover was held in place by two cone-headed bolts. This is a horizontal section through the cover and the rear wall.

A ring was welded to the inside of the wall, and the bolts screwed into this ring. The heater system itself comprised some pipes that guided the blowtorch flames to the water pipes. The end of these pipes also attached to this ring, at the four smaller threaded holes that you can see here [3] . The heater system (like the engine) is missing from this museum vehicle.

This is the hole as seen from the outside. These are the original German measurements [4, see page 72] .

This vertical profile shows the cover in place.

To heat the engine, the cover was removed and a sheet-metal tray was fixed to the port. I am guessing that the same two bolts were used. This is a profile of the tray in place.

A blowtorch simiar to these ones, was placed on the tray.

For diagrams of the heating system itself, see [2, see page 142 ] and [4, see page 72]

Sources

[1] Survey of vehicle 251114, at Saumur, by Jean-Charles Breucque

[2] DW to Tiger 1

[3] Survey of Sturmtiger at Panzermuseum Munster, by Rob Veenendaal

[4] Der Panzerkampfwagen VI und seine abarten, Walter J. Spielberger, Motor Buch Verlag

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