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One thing that affects warm up time is the amount of coolant and oil that needs to be heated. So let's think about some ways of reducing the amount of coolant and oil that need to be warmed up. These would be used only during winter.
A few things that come to mind would be
- inserting objects to displaced some of the volume that would normally be coolant. For example, insert a 1.5 foot 3/4 " diameter solid plastic cylinder into the radiator, insert it in through the cap. (You can take it out in summer)
- Squeeze the radiator and heater supply rubber hoses half-way using mini-clamps
- Use a smaller oil filter (if this is possible)
The insulation ideas mentioned by other others (insulating oil sump, oil filter, Heater supply hoses) while extending time to full cool down, don't address an 8 to 9 hour cooldown where as having less coolant and oil to warm up should reduce time with enriched fuel mixture and the driver may be able to turn on the heat a few minutes sooner.
What prompted this idea is that I have a 2003 Sienna with front and rear heating which took twice the time to heat up compared to my 2008 Scion xB and then I noticed the Sienna has 11 quarts of coolant versus 6.2 quarts for the xB.
Also has anyone tried insulating the heater core supply and return hoses.
Another idea that just came to mind is teeing into the Transmission cooler tubes and feeding the warm transmission fluid through an insulated canister that will warm the radiator as soon as the transmission spins. Scratch that idea.... this is more fluid to heat.
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