Quote:
Originally Posted by tinduck
I am thinking along the line of setting up a hot air blower in front of my lower grill. Since the engine compartment is higly encapsulated (belly pan under the engine), the warm air should flow up (as warm air does) through the whole engine compartment before flowing out around the exhaust line to the back of the vehicle. The blower has a 2 KW setting and should kick up quite some heat; I may try 1/2 an hour of pre-heating first and evaluate the result.
Has anybody done this? Thoughts?
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Someone has proposed this (I can't find the thread), but it's not the best idea. Heating the air to heat the engine is less efficient than getting the job done directly, mainly because a good portion of that warm air will be lost through holes and drafts in the engine bay. Also, the amount of heat that the engine can absorb is limited by its surface area, so you'd have to keep it in warm air for a long time before it soaked up any heat. You'd spend alot of energy heating
everything inside the engine bay, instead of focusing only on what really needs to be warmed up.
A cheap alternative may be one of those infrared bulbs, aimed straight at the engine block.
But if your engine is all bundled up with accessories into a neat, compact package (like mine
), then you may not have direct access to the block itself. But the oilpan should be clear, though.