So I FINALLY got around to this one. Sorry, not much of a how-to but I have some tips to help.

• Remove the wheel, just do it. Tried with it in the way in off-road height and its just gets in the way.
• Remove all the heat shields, just do it. You can maybe leave the forward most one, but I took it out too. They are not funning snaking out of there but its doable.
• After you remove the wheel, the upper arm will hang to low (I even jacked it up using the lower arm). Go ahead and disconnect the sway bar link and upper ball joint (warning on that below)
• For the freeze plug removal, you want a 17mm Allen socket. I looked all over for one until I finally found on in a three-piece set at Autozone for $15.
• For heater install, my Kat's used a 1 1/16" socket. You want a shallower one but one that get get over the plug portion of the heater. Its its too long, well there is just so little working room there.
• You do not have to remove the wheel well liner, or at least I did not.
• You do not have to remove skid plates. I did with mine for other work, but for me there was no easy path from below anyway.

Removing the freeze plug is the hardest thing. Not because its tightly installed, it is, but because there is just no working room. My tools were all half inch drives. I had the 17mm socket, u-joint and extension. The distance from the plug to the engine mount is very limited and it was not easy wiggling the Allen bit into place. Then when backing out the back end of the u-joint would hit the mount. Its a trial and error and frustration thing, but you can get it. Once it is popped free from its initial hold, it comes out easy and you can work things around more to get it out. My path for removal was forward of the upper arms rear tower to frame. You can also try the other side of the upper arm frame. Just did not work for me. Oh, I used a 3-foot breaker to get it to initially break.

Install I did go behind the upper arm tower. This is when maybe removing the liner would help, but it would have done nothing for me. Same setup as removal with u-joint, etc. But now with socket. I did add teflon tape to the heater threads as a precaution. I also covered the first bit of cord with heat shield. And at the connection I put some high temp gasket maker to both seal the connection better and to keep it from falling out (I drive on corrugated roads). In the last pic, I did not route the cord that way when done, I went behind the upper arm's rear tower with a downward bend to keep it away from exhaust. Then several cable ties along the factory harness that is attached to the frame. My cord was not long enough to exit the truck at a good spot. So I will have to open the hood to plug in every time - will work out a better solution later.

If you have an wrench that ratchets on the closed end with a flexible head then install may be tons easier. One of those one-click with every motion to tighten sorta installs....

WARNING: The upper ball joint torque spec is low, like 50 ft/lb or so. These LOVE to snap if overdone. I did it once, neighbor did too.

 

Great job on the coolant heater! Only took you 4 years, but who hasn't put off a project for that long? I still have a replacement tranny oil filter and genuine Totota ATF fluid from my scion that I was going to do a tranny job on, 9 years ago. Suffice it to say, my LR3 replaced my Scion years ago.

On another note, how are you powering the heater? Just plugged it directly into 120v mains, or do you have an inverter/timer relay on your second battery?

 

Mains. It is 400 watt so my aux battery could handle it but it would drain fairly fast I bet. I have a smart plug that I can activate remotely or at set times.