This thread will go about (pre)heating up the engine (the coolant and/or the engine oil and so the engine itself).
This post will get updated with new info, links to other threads and
the ecomodder wiki page!
I aim hoping to make a guideline for myself and other ecomodder forum members in the search for warming up the car when it is cold outside. This mod can also operate in the summer to even warm up faster.
Ofcourse we can also preheat the transmission and/or the differential oil to lower the drivetrain losses when cold.
The first step of these mods is ofcourse using the right type of oil. The lowest viscosity oil recommended or if you dare, even lower (only at your own risk!!!). Fill the coolant level of your car only at minimum when
cold This is to have the least amount of coolant that needs to be warmed up.
What do we want to gain?
First of all, less fuel usage, so better milage.
Less wear and tear on the components.
Getting the engine faster at operating temperature.
Witch energy source can we use?
There are 3 possible scenarios.
1-alternator
You need to be carefull. The alternator cant put out a lot of power. If you have a gasoline engine. At idle. It wont produce much. Max 10-30 amps.
If you have a diesel engine. Its a bit more then when you have a gasoline engine. But not this much. 20-40amps.
Ofcourse those amp numbers are depending on alt size. The bigger engine you have. The bigger alt. But also here. Not extreme much different.
2-battery. The heaters are running from a seperate battery and is grid charged when you are parked at home. Note. Use deepcycle or a lipo battery. Otherwise the battery is fast worn out.
3-grid power. The heaters can only work when gridpower is available.
What kind of heaters are preferable?
There are sticky heaters that you can tape with the selfadhesive tape on the heater. But a lot of heat is transfered to the surrounding. So less efficient.
We have the plugheaters (or whatever they are called) that replace the drianplug.
Last one is a diffiult one. Make a separate hole for a special heater that only recoures a hole :P
And the special one is (only for engine oil heating) a dipstick oil heater. One downside: if the size is not correct it does not work. And the heating power is low because of the small heater. Cant be big otherwise it wont fit in that tiny hole.
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At the moment i aim running a 3glowplug coolant heater. This does the job for heating up the coolant faster.
Normally after 6,5km i start at around 15degrees celcius coolant. I reach around 55a 60 degrees celcius coolant.
Now with the coolant heater on (somewhere around 400 to 500W of power) the coolant is at 70 degrees celcius and then i turn it off (after this point it does not help much with faster heating up...
I have an 100W padheater at the oil sump is at the moment not working (a short in the circuit).
This has almost no noticeable effect.
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Now lets get the discussion started
I will update the first post with aditional info or change incorrect info with correct info.
Thanks