Engine oil, transmission oil and differential oil heaters

[TimV]

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

[oil pan 4]

Block Heater - EcoModder

[TimV]

Thanks for the link. That page covers only the coolant heater (witch i forgot to mention in the first post).

The first post is actually a sketck of raw date and info. It needs to get worked out fully.

Bit had no time left today.

Hopefully the next days I can make it better

The point of this thread is making a guide line for other people that are interessted in the ecomod of heating coolant or oils to benefit the milage.

Also to gather tips and threads of other people who already have succesfully added heaters.

So feel free to post links of your own project and i will add it to the first post!

[oil pan 4]

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ing-32203.html
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ing-32286.html

[Daox]

Grid power heating is the only way to go IMO.

Oil Pan made a lot of good suggestions. Guys also like the pad heaters too.

[SDMCF]

I have had a couple of cars with pad heaters on the engine sump and I have not been impressed by the results. They seem designed merely to warm the oil in the sump, presumably in the belief that it will flow better through a massive lump of cold iron than cold oil would. They make no pretense of heating the block itself and warm-up times for the engine are not noticeably improved. A decent heater in the coolant is a lot better.

I haven't tried a pad heater on the gearbox or diff.

[MkVer]

I run off the grid for my car and truck though I've toyed the idea of a battery with solar trickle while I'm at work and then grid charge at home.

Car. I have a Frostheater/zerostart coolant heater. It works well and I'm very happy with it. It also works for the transmission but that's because my car uses a oil/coolant heat exchange to cool or heat the transmission fluid.

Truck. Block heater for the engine and a pad heater on the transmission pan. There's a huge difference in the transmission's behavior with cold or warm fluid. I like the idea of a plug heater but I worry about fire. Unfounded, I know plug heaters are safe but my subconscious can't get past it.

In both cases, I've found a grille block and hood insulation work amazingly well at keeping the engine warm while the vehicle sits in the parking lot at work. I'm not sure if a heater on the diff would be worth it, that's a lot of metal exposed to the air and frictional loses due to cold fluid I think would be minimal compared to the energy required to heat it.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Though an engine block heater is more effective to reach operational temperatures quicker, those oil heaters (either plug or dipstick heater) might help too. A thinner oil flowing easily might also reach the valvetrain faster, reducing its wear.

[Miller88]

Just doing the simple test of sticking various quarts of oil in the trunk when it's cold, 0w-20 does flow much better than a conventional 5 or 10w-30.

[puddleglum]

I really think both oil and coolant heaters have their merits. Warm oil not only flows easier (reducing wear) but it will transmit that heat up through the block. Heat does rise after all. I agree that oil heaters are not as quick at heating the head as a coolant heater though. I currently run the 400w factory coolant heater along with a 150w pad style oil pan heater on the engine (like the one in Doax' post) and a 50w pad heater on the transmission. I also have a grill block and an insulated belly pan, both for Aero improvement and to keep as much heat in as possible. Most of my trips are short (1-4 miles) so it makes a noticeable difference at anything below about 5*C. Above that I'm not sure if the gas savings offset the power cost or not.