If you don't need real-time temperatures, Harbor Freight has an IR thermometer for cheap.
I plug my Dodge diesel in religiously. I put it on a timer so it does less time in warmer weather. I haven't noticed that it helps or hurts the fuel economy, but I haven't done a rigorous test, either. Without the heater it takes one to two miles to get as hot as with the heater. The dash screen will say between "< 100" (very cold night and parked outside) to as high as about 125 F.
The motor is a huge 1200 lb (544 kg) lump of metal. I have noticed it throws off heat for a long time. One question I had was would it be worth throwing a blanket over the motor (after it cooled a bit so as to not melt anything).
AC Propulsion has said part of their secret for great range on their electric car was the charger used a field coil on the motor, which then warmed the tranny.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diesel_Dave
Yeah, heaters are one of the next thing on my list of mods. Coolant heater will be the first because it's already on the engine. All I had to do was to get the cord for it ($15 on Amazon). I have the cord now, I just need to screw it on. The thing is I can reach the heater hookup (with my hand), but I think I'll have to take the oil filter off to actually get it off (which I have to do shortly anyway because I'm overdue for an oil change).
I'm looking into using the coolant heater for a few reasons. Since we moved, my commute is now 25 miles rather than 40, so the warm-up time affects me proportionately more than it used to. I started carefully watching my coolant temp warm up times after I intalled the upper grill block. In the morning, with the ambient temp 60 to 70 F, it still takes around 2 miles before the temp gauge moves (140 F) and 10 miles before I get up to 200 F coolant temp. Once I get up to temp the FE definitely improves.
What I don't know is how much of the FE warm-up penalty is the coolant temp vs. oil temp vs. tranny temp vs. axle temp, etc. If I had to guess order of importance is oil, coolant, tranny,axle, but that's just a guess. Of course if I pre-heat the coolant then my oil should warm up faster as well. Eventually, I'm thinking up getting some of those pad heaters for the oil pan--maybe even the tranny & axle too (we'll see).
BTW, anyone know the cheapest way to monitor temps (oil, tranny, axle, etc.)?
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