Block Heater + Coolant Pump
 

Well, it's that time of year again... time to start thinking block heaters.

Circulation heaters typically work on the thermosyphoning effect where hot coolant rising out of the heater pulls cold coolant in, but this very slow circulation leads to an engine that is heated more on one end than the other and takes a long time to heat up.

I bought a 1000W Zerostart tank-type circulation heater to install in my Cruze. I would like to install a circulation pump in line with it to speed up the warming process as well as heat the entire engine side-to-side a bit more consistently.

Question: Has anyone here done something similar, and if so what did you use for a circulation pump?

I have a drain pump from a dishwasher I'm planning to use but since I haven't started installing it yet I thought I'd ask around to see if there are better options? One thing to keep in mind is BUDGET... I know there are some pumps designed specifically for this but they typically cost 100's of dollars. This needs to be relatively cheap.

One thing I though of would be a water pump from a small engine like a motorcycle or snowmobile, if such a thing were available as a separate unit that didn't mount to an engine block?

Suggestions welcome!

EDIT: Operating on 120V would be a nice to have as it would work on AC wall power along with the heater.

Ebay? There are options for much less than "100's of dollars"...

Here's a 1.5kw heater with pump:

Buy it now for USD $70

Tank Type Engine Coolant Block Heater Pump 1500W Diesel KAT'S Brand Tractor NEW | eBay

You'd want a timer, too, obviously.

Maybe a oil sump heater? You could get a magnetic or a adhesive pad type, the pad ones you could also stick to the engine block itself. Also, don't the circulation heaters have a pump built in?

Heh. I was wondering whether I could use the heating plate of an old coffee brewer as a cheapo block heater.
I meant to use it as a contact heater only, but maybe it can be used to pipe-heat the coolant too.

Most likely I'll stay away from messing with it like this until the warranty has expired :o
After all, I'm not that keen on using some home-built high voltage contraption in an environment that may have volatile and explosive gases. :eek:

Those Katz heaters are effectively the same as the Zerostart I bought... there's no internal pump, the seller is mistaken and the circulation is from the heated coolant rising only. Katz' marketing material is a little confusing and when I first started looking at them I thought they had an internal pump also.

My "100's of dollars" comment was based on pricing replacement auxilliary coolant pumps out of luxury cars (Merceded, Lincoln, etc.) that use a pump at idle to keep heater core flow high, and also replacement coolant pumps for fuel-fired diesel engine heaters.

Timer - check! Got a 15A Noma that I plug my extension cord into, on sale at CT last winter.

The car has a factory installed oil pan heater on it already. It's only a 200W unit but does a decent job of keping the oil warm. It does very little to heat the engine, however, and my warm up times in the dead of winter are still extremely long.

No. Integrated pumps are becomming more popular with larger industrial engine heaters (several videos on the 'Tube showing the benefits), but are not available yet with smaller automobile heaters as far as I know. The smaller automotive heaters depend soley on hot coolant rising to circulate the coolant. Slowly...

It would work, as long as you can rig it up without electricuting yourself. :) Anything warm placed under the oil pan will help to warm the oil; old-timers tell stories of putting a 100W light bulb in a trouble light under the oil pan at night to help with cold starts.

FYI
The dipstick oil warmer from Oreilly is junk

Thanks, I'll be sure to avoid that!

What are the benefits of mechanically circulating the coolant?

I wouldn't think they are that huge... You're dumping 1000W into the coolant weather you pump it or not. Does it matter if the block is being heated evenly? As soon as you start the engine its going to circulate it for you.