Block heaters in general don't heat up the oil. The oil sits down in the oil pan and is only connected to the block via the oil pan's fairly thin walls. This may conduct some heat, but not enough to really raise the oil temp much at all. However, once you start the engine and start circulating the oil through the warm(er) block, it will raise temps.
I drove the Mirage for the 2nd time to work today. I've been driving the Civic still because I have had to do the Takata airbag recall, and my driver's seat belt latch switch was bad, and they will replace that under warranty. I also had an issue with the Mirage's heat blowing cool on the passenger side and decided to try flushing the heater core out. Anyway, I plugged in for 20 minutes this morning. The ambient temperature was 22F. When I started up the car my coolant temp was 83F, and by the time I was out of my driveway it was up over 90F. Rough calculations show that the block heater raises coolant temp by about 3°F per minute of being plugged in. Obviously that will taper off the hotter things get as the block will loose more and more heat the hotter it gets. But, at 30 minutes of run time, that should get my coolant over 100F in all but the coldest of days.
Also, my commute in was a very nice 47.3 mpg in according to the car's MFD. Not bad for 22F.
|