Quote:
Originally Posted by fearone
Thinking out aloud here...
How about using a cloth iron as a budget, powerful, adjustable temp, sump heater?
After all, this is what ecomodding is all about!
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That's actually a really good idea. An electric flat iron is about 1kw or 1.5kw I believe, but closely controls the temperature of it's plate. (A silk shirt is WAY more fussy about temperature than an engine sump!) And the temperature range of a flat iron is perfect for a sump heater. You could bond it onto a flat area of the sump with heat transfer epoxy adhesive - the stuff they use on heat sinks - or just ordinary epoxy works quite well if the two surfaces are nice and flat.
The main problem is that there is VERY limited space between an oil sump pan and the road, and having a hard lumpy item right on the bottom could spell disaster if you hit a rock: rather than having a slightly bent sump pan you'd be liable to crack a hole in it. Also you would have to waterproof the iron's electrics very effectively.
But I really like it! You might have to 'hack' the iron. I've never taken one apart (I threw one out a few weeks ago - drat!) but you might find the element is also quite flat and close to the plate, so you can seal that part off, bond it to the bottom of the sump, so that whole part has a nice low profile, ...and then extend the wires (?) to the heat setting knob and mount that in a little box somewhere higher up where you can get to it easily to adjust it. Or mount it on the dash! But you'd probably find that one particular setting is ideal and you can then seal the temperature control in a waterproof box in the engine bay somewhere and forget it.
I reckon a 1kw iron would get the oil up to full temperature in about half an hour. Modern synthetic oil doesn't begin to break down below 150 degrees C, so setting the iron to a 'wool' setting of about 150 degrees C should be perfectly safe, given that there's always going to be a temperature drop between the iron and the oil across the oil pan's wall.
Do it! And let us know how you get on.