Dart, your story sure brings back memories. I drove an M577 (the command version of the 113). That heater was quite a thing. We had one old gnarly Staff Sgt. who could get them to either a) shoot a 10 foot blue flame at which point the term 'heater' was understating things quite alot. OR b) the thing would shoot great billowing clouds of diesel smoke (the thing ran off the same fuel as the motor). Neither option allowed for the crew to breath.

We also had 'mogas burners' but only officers ever got to stand in the 3 foot circle of warmth provided by one of these.

Driving that damn thing in the cold was terrible, since the engine sucked air through the driver hatch and your hand would practically freeze to the laterals.

The belly of the thing was always full of a mix of water, oil, coolant and mud, and woe to the stupid sucker who ever turned on the bilge pump. This would immediately spray said concoction all over the side of the vehicle and ground, where it made quite a mess. No, the solution to cleaning the bilge was to get under the vehicle with about 10 drip pans ready, and unscrew the 50 pound belly plate, where once the water tight seal was broken, the poor sucker under the thing got showered in mess as he tried to catch it in the drip pans.

Fun stuff.