Civic Block Heater Install
 

So with all my spare time I have now having two kids, I decided to install my block heater that I got from NAPA last night.

Something to note: I have an aftermarket header on my VX that made installation easier by only having to remove the upper portion of it for the install. If you have the OEM Cat Converter (I will refer to it as the maniverter) still, you can remove the 12mm bolts holding the header to the block and then remove the 14/12mm exhaust bolts under the car where the maniverter meets the exhaust system.

Parts needed:
NAPA Part# BK 6053231 Engine Heater

Tools I used:

• 12mm socket and wrench
• 14mm socket
• 18mm socket
• me
• channel locks
• drain pan
• BFH

First I ran the car to warm up the motor, then drained the radiator via the petcock into the drain pan.

After that I removed the upper portion of my header using the 12mm & 14mm socket and wrench when the header cooled down slightly.

Then I removed the OEM drain bolt with the 18mm socket after tapping the bolt with the BFH a few times to ensure that it would come out easily. Make sure you move the drain pan under the portion of the motor that you're working on. There is actually a little hole in the flange on the block to help guide the coolant that comes out.

I then installed the block heater and tightened using the channel locks (I did not have a 24mm socket handy to tighten it with).
http://thelic.org/users/tomo/blockheater.jpg

Connect the cord and route it out the passenger side of the hood, then reinstall the upper portion of the header.
http://thelic.org/users/tomo/blockheater1.jpg

I ended up putting some tin foil over the cord behind the header to help keep the heat off the cord.

Sorry it's not the best DIY, I didn't feel like taking pictures at the very beginning, not much to see anyways that you can't deduce from the two pictures anyways.

Hope this helps out some people to install their block heaters on their Honda/Acura.

Nice clean install. Enjoy the heat.

Very nice. Is warming it to operating temp to make it easier to remove the plug?

Nice job tomo!

I might have asked you this already: what's the wattage of the heater?

Looking forward to your impressions after using it.

To a point, yes. The OEM block plug is steel while the engine block is aluminum. The difference in expansion rates help to free things up a bit. Also hitting the bolt directly with a hammer helps immensely.

Thanks for the props, gentlemen! :thumbup: I even get to plug in the car when I park in the lot at work now too! :D

400W is the listed wattage in the spec sheet.

My first impression for this morning's commute:

I need to pick up a timer so it can turn on just a couple hours before I need to go to work. I had it plugged in for 7.5 hours this morning (I know, bad me).

This morning's temperature was -5°F with a wind chill near -16°F.
Beginning intake temps were at 56.5°F (I installed a digital temp display, but that will be another post). Temperature inside my garage was ~28°F.

The car reached operating temps within 1 minute and 1/2 mile. It would normally take the car ~4 miles to reach temp otherwise. Intake temps plummeted to 5°F while cruising and would creep up to ~50°F depending on length of time stopped at a light. (need to get that WAI back in the car)

I still can't afford a SuperMID to get instantaneous results, but I should see a slight increase in my mpg after a couple tanks.

Overall, I think this will be worth the initial cost and should see it pay for itself in the first year. :turtle:

What did the block heater run ya?

I'm moving to Minnesota within the year and need to look into this mod..

For my VX, it was $45. I have no idea what it would cost for your truck though. You can check on Napaonline.com though. Enter in your vehicle and then do a search for "engine heater" without the quotes. Or you could always call up your local Toyota stealership. I know that for the Prius and Yaris that the block heater is a pretty quick installation and it a no mes deal since it just slides into a pocket on the block.

EDIT:

Did a little searching for you....Napa has a frost plug style heater HERE for $36.

The block heater for my Matrix was a very reasonable $35ish shipped to my doorstep. If you have an alumnium block, they usually just slide into a bored hole like TomO said. If its an iron block you usually have to knock out a freeze plug.

$36.09.. I just have to pull a freeze plug :)

thanks for the help on that one..
2002 Toyota Tacoma 2.4 engine heater (for refference)

wow, I got my 1000w Tank Type Block Heater at Advance Auto Parts for only $27.98, and a freeze-plug type that I was gonna buy was $15.98 and was 600w. The tank type is thermostatically controlled. Check AAP and see if they have something cheaper.

Tank type block heater? any pictures of that? google has netted me ziltch

http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductL...e=1415&PTSet=A
Here's a block heater I found for your vehicle.


http://www.partsamerica.com/product_.../fiv/12150.jpgThis is a tank type heater, you connect a coolant hose, or drain plug to the side intake(silver) and coolant gets heated. It then goes out the top,(red) and goes in a continuous flow, heating the coolant. I couldn't find a tank type for your vehicle, but this is what mine looks like. It looks more simple than using the freeze plug cause it only takes connecting hoses to the the ends, and it came with all the hose ties, as well as a Y-connecter, and it basically the same process as freeze plug. drain coolant, attach heater, refill coolant, run engine, add coolant till it's back to level. You might be able to find one, you'd just have to look around. they might have a universal one you could use.

I originally had a Kat's circulation type tank heater of the 1000W range that I got from Ebay. In fact, I'm selling it on ebay now as it will not work out for the way the civic has it's coolant hoses set up. Plus, it takes up much more room than the frost plug heater. It's just a personal preference on my part, but it was much easier to setup the OEM style thread in plug heater than trying find a lower hose adapter and plumb it all in.

It really depends on each vehicle, because freeze plug types are harder to do than coolant hoses for the 4.0, and I've got way too much room left for that giant V8 that can go in there, and it'd be easier to do than a freeze plug. But I understand in a smaller vehicle because of the smaller engine bays, especially the newer vehicles (everything is covered in plastic trim). I don't know about that toyota. I'm guessing there's lots of room left because he has the 2.4 and it's designed to take a V8.

Ok, so I did some calculating yesterday at work.

It costs ~12¢ per day to run the heater. That's running from 6am-8am and then from 2pm-4pm 5 days a week. 400Watt heater run for 4 hours = 1600Watts or 1.6kWh. 1.6kWh = 12.32¢. So now it only takes my car ~1 minute to hit operating temp as indicated by temp gauge instead of ~6 minutes it takes without the heater. I'm not completely sure of the mileage I get while the car is in rich mode warming up, but I'll assume 25MPG and normal operating temp mileage will be 45MPG let's say (due to me not putting in the WAI again for winter). Assuming Gasoline is $3 per gallon it costs me 12¢ per mile during warmup as opposed to only 6.6¢ per mile cost during normal operating temp. So I'm saving almost 6 cents per mile for roughly ten minutes each day (2 x 5 minutes...once in the morning and once in the afternoon) in that ten minutes I cover ~10 miles. That means I'm saving 60¢ in gas every day or $3 every week that I use the heater (which is also one gallon of gas). In order to recoup the cost of the heater, I need to use it for ~13 weeks. Please correct me if any of my math is wrong.

So a block heater is a great investment for the DIY'er or even the type of ecomodder that wants to save gas without cost being an issue (i.e. having a shop install the heater).

TomO, your Math hurts my head ;)

It hurt my head a few times...I was doing most of it in my head. Then i started writing it down and got it figured out to my satisfaction, lol.

dont forget the benefits of 5 min's less of "frozen butt syndrome" causing distracted driving ;)

Heated seat inlay FTW!!!! ;0

Don't forget assuming you plug it in 8 hours a day for 20 days a month at 400 watts this consumes 160 x 400 / 1000 = 16 x 4 = 64kwh's, so assuming a cost of 11 cents per kwh your electric bill will cost $7.04 extra per month in this particular scenario.

When you find out your actual mpg increase you will want to calculate how much actual fuel it saves, considering that the money spent on the electric would have bought 2 gallons of fuel it is hard to see at this point if this really saves money because heating an engine is one of the most inefficient ways of electricity usage.

Now I do see you're in a cold climate so if the temperatures around your car are in the single digits Fahrenheit this might affect the car to where it would not start unless it was heated then a block heater is the answer of choice, which is to say I have never heard of anyone using such a device unless it was absolutely crucial, such as the car would NOT start otherwise. And yes, there is such a thing as the kind of cold that will affect a car in such a manner, but if it is kept inside and it starts fine unheated then this is as likely just so much more phony baloney and snake oil.

It is one thing to get better economy, it is quite another to push a car up a hill so one can coast down it to get better mpg and then go spend $5 more on a lunch when it would've cost 50 cents or a dollar just to drive up it, but hey, I get unlimited mpg.

Should your calculations differ from mine on the electric bill and the mpg increase make this truly worthwhile I am certainly more than willing to stand corrected. Because I'm not knocking experimentation per se but to ignore the entire cost of the other side of the equation, that frustrates more than not worrying about it in the first place.

8 hours is a really really long time... In any case, he already did the math to look at the entire cost (read up on the first page - link to post below) ;)
http://forum.ecomodder.com/showpost....0&postcount=17

Unlimited MPG? You must work for the state/government I take :D

Interesting info a friend told me about..
Ambulances are almost always plugged into block heaters while parked in cold weather climates..

30 something a year for over night use of a block heater really wouldnt be too bad of a deal.. Its just cheap insurance if ya ask me..

Why make your engine suffer with a harsh cold start when you can do this?
I myself being on call would have to have one of these plugged in at all times for that just in case.. I dont want to sit there and have to wait for a block heater to thaw things out..

If I can pull 455K out of a stock engine w/orignal head gasket, I must be doing something right.. :thumbup:

Update
 

Just a little update:

I filled up my car last night and calculated my MPG..... 46.14 US MPG, with a distance of 394 mi. and used 8.539 gallons.

Previous fill ups without block heater = 41.45 US MPG, 43.12 US MPG, and 43.33 US MPG.
MY GASLOG

Proof that having a block heater installed will help improve FE. :thumbup:

The average temp since my last fill up has been 22°F that is with one day of 42°F high (freak thing) and then a cold few days from -15°F (ironically that was just a day after the 42° day).

I just put the same block heater in my DX. I had been putting off doing this all winter since I was afraid I would need to remove the exhaust manifold, which bites and entails getting a new gasket between it and the head plus one for between the manifold and the elbow before the cat. It was actually pretty easy. The plug came out easily considering I live in a climate with a winter and the car is 15 years old with 250,000 miles. All I did was remove the heat shield to get at the plug. From there I used a 3" extension with a regular socket wrench. No BFH was needed. I routed the plug out through the grill on the bottom of the bumper. I still need to zip tie it on there or something. It's nice but it isn't getting the car as warm as fast as I expected. I have only used it for 1 hour at the most and when I fired up the car the needle was only a little up from pegged at the bottom. Then this afternoon I had to go on an errand that entailed me only driving several miles. I knew that I was going to need to go out again later in the day so I plugged the block heater in as soon as I got in from the first trip thinking that the temp wouldn't drop at all. Well when I fired it up for the second trip it wasn't fully warmed up. I think I need to conduct some experiments to see how long it takes to engine to reach the maximum temp afforded by the block heater and what exactly that temp is. Also are there any danger associated with keeping it plugged in all the time?

What are you experiences in these matters TomO?

P.S. I don't want to show the heater in a bad light. It rocks. I love it. Well worth the money even if my fuel economy doesn't change one lick.

Glad the install went well for you S_F.

It takes 2-3 hours (depending on where the car is located and what the ambient temps are) to get the block warmed up as much as the heater can.

The heater itself only attains ~120°F so that means that the block only gets up to about 80°F. The aluminum block and head are great at dissipating heat so that's why the block really only gets up to about 80°F after a couple hours. the stock needle on our cars doesn't even really get off of the bottom tick mark until the motor reaches ~120°F

The only drawback to leaving the heater plugged in longer than 3 hours is that it just makes you spend more money on electricity.

I know that some people are under the impression that a block heater gets the car up to operating temps (180°F +) but it doesn't. It helps to take the edge off the cold temps and cuts off a minute or more from warm up time.

I wouldn't be quite as concerned with the gains from efficiency as I would be the longevity of the block.

Motor will last soooo much longer without having to warm up as much. Cold starts are hard on a motor.

TomO:

I added your MPG data to the wiki as tank to tank data, I am just guessing on the install time though, do you have a time to install?

Any long term MPG gain averages or ABA test data?
Block Heater - EcoModder

No need to remove the manifold, just the cover. Including the time it takes to bleed the coolant system it took me... maybe... 40 minutes? It's really a pretty procedure.

It took me under an hour of actual work to install the block heater. And thanks for adding that info to the wiki!

Not a problem to add the data, I am looking through back postings trying to gather data to fill in mods that have no data or are lacking.

Any other mods that you have done that you have data (or a good estimation for)?

All of my other Projects have moot data for them since I still haven't got around to fixing/installing my MPGuino :(

does it use a timer or how do you start heating up 3 hours before you leave home?

sorry but this post is only because I wanna se what I am gonna be able to see after my 10 first post . hehe, and please let me know when somebody put together a For dummies how to install a pre assembled mpguino, ah and where to buy it.

I use a Heavy duty (three prong) mechanically programmable timer in order to get the EBH started two hours before I leave the house in the morning.

Unfortunately, I am no longer allowed to plug in at work, but the timer was used at work as well when I did plug in there.

How come you can't plug in at work any more? Liability concerns or cost concerns on their part?

What I was told by the building supervisor (friend of mine) was: Someone didn't like where I was parking, so you (me) have to stop.

In order to be able to plug in at work, I had to park next to the building and grounds garage, which is the equivalent of two parking spaces closer to the building than any marked parking space. Apparently, some co-worker of mine didn't think that was fair. Bummer too, since while I was able to park my car there, I would help out brushing snow off the others' cars as mine would have a little less snow on it. but now I have to spend my time clearing snow from my car after work instead of helping the others out.

Cost was never an issue since the Building Supervisor told me what they pay for electricity and since I only would use .8KWhrs a day, it only cost about $0.04/day to plug in at work.

Ah... good ol' office politics!

Would an extension cord work?