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Heat engine block for efficiency?
My old blue beater '93 Dodge Shadow 2.2L 4 cylinder has a plug on the front of it. (oh if that were only for recharging some lithium batteries...)
It is for an engine block heater to keep the engine warm at night so you can start it on a cold winter morning.
I plugged it in once just to see that it worked. It seemed to. I didn't pop a breaker and my car didn't explode.
I have a good battery, and it doesn't usually get so cold that I couldn't start it.
But I was thinking, if a warm engine runs more efficiently, could I use the block heater to pre-heat the engine and get better gas mileage? Or is the car warmed up two minutes after starting it, so the only fuel gains would have been for that first two minutes anyhow, plus I wasted all that electricity running the block heater?
Has anyone tried this?
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