02 G1 Insight with many ecomods- 999.6 mile tank @ 105 MPG - Page 13 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

The donkey CRX · 12-09-2016, 09:22 AM

I looked up the block heater on my Amazon order history. It is a Zerostart 310-0006 with a 28mm thread. This fits many 1980s to early 2000s Honda 4 cylinder engines, BUT NOT ALL!

Hope this helps

Baltothewolf · 12-09-2016, 10:50 AM

Yea that's what my research turned up as well. That unit is 1/2 the price of the Honda one, so I will probably pick that one up. I'll also pick up the one that splices into the lower radiator hose so I can heat all the coolant in the system. With both working in tandem, maybe I can get the coolant to ~150.

LittleBlackDuck · 12-09-2016, 05:33 PM

I have to ask how much electricity is used for a very small fuel saving? Can somebody quantify this?

Simon

Ecky · 12-09-2016, 05:46 PM

I believe the OEM block heater wattage is 400w. If you run it for 2 hours, that's 0.8kwh, which costs about 13 cents where I live. Preheating the engine reduces wear, but even if we leave that out of the equation I'd need to save around 0.05 gallons of gas each trip to break even.

To put it in a perspective we're more used to thinking in, if I heat the engine 20 days per month I'm spending about $2.50, or a bit more than the cost of a gallon of gas here. I go through a tank roughly every 2-3 weeks and average maybe 60mpg in the winter, which is about 1000 miles per month or 17 gallons. I'd need to have an overall increase of 1/17 or 6% to break even with the block heater, which is ~3.5mpg for me.

Do I achieve this? If I'm making shorter trips, it's a lot more than that. Longer, can't say, the numbers are all small enough that they could easily disappear into background noise.

Baltothewolf · 12-10-2016, 01:49 AM

Yea it's not about MPG for me when it comes to the block heater thing. The insight makes such god awful noises below 40F on cold starts. And to even further my argument, I don't like freezing my ass off in the car for the first 2 miles of my drive.

LittleBlackDuck · 12-10-2016, 05:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baltothewolf

Yea it's not about MPG for me when it comes to the block heater thing. The insight makes such god awful noises below 40F on cold starts. And to even further my argument, I don't like freezing my ass off in the car for the first 2 miles of my drive.

That is why the heated seats and a hybrid that heats up within 2 minutes works well.

Simon

fusion210 · 12-10-2016, 06:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baltothewolf

Yea it's not about MPG for me when it comes to the block heater thing. The insight makes such god awful noises below 40F on cold starts. And to even further my argument, I don't like freezing my ass off in the car for the first 2 miles of my drive.

I know I'm overdue for a valve adjustment, but I wouldn't describe it as such. Maybe something else is happening with you and yours? Piston slap? Transmission noises?

Baltothewolf · 12-10-2016, 07:04 AM

Every insight makes awful noises when cold. Something with inadequate oiling of the rods. There is mention of it on insight central.

Fat Charlie · 12-12-2016, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ecky

I'd need to have an overall increase of 1/17 or 6% to break even with the block heater, which is ~3.5mpg for me.

Do I achieve this? If I'm making shorter trips, it's a lot more than that. Longer, can't say, the numbers are all small enough that they could easily disappear into background noise.

Every trip has a first few miles, even if the longer trips diminish its apparent impact.

COcyclist · 04-08-2017, 07:51 PM

Donkey, it looks like your last post was Dec. 2016. How about an update? Are you still making the drive? How did your numbers fare over the winter? I followed your lead last fall and added the Kats heating pad to my oil pan and it seems to really make a difference over using the coolant tank heater alone. Diesels run better warm too. Thanks.