The heater current is indeed barely there to make this work. The B+ current is also sufficient. If you have the Speedball upgrade, let me know and I can revisit the resistor changes necessary.
This would very likely be a nice alternate driver tube, and it has a little bit less gain than the AU7 IIRC. You will, however, want to start with a fresh 9 pin socket to facilitate the modification (complete socket rewiring).