Fast warm up ideas: Double engine block heaters

[NHB]

Originally Posted by Fingie

how about having a heater coil inside the oil pan, on the bottom to directly heat the oil?

A contact heater on the outer surface of the oil pan is much more convenient solution. Both of them heat the oil fast but a contact heater requires less head-scratching.

If you put a heating element inside the oil pan, the you need to have a lot of heating surface. More than 2.4 W/cm² for the surface of a heating element could have adverse effects on the quality of the oil. If the surface is too hot, the oil will oxidase. Most engines have a compact oil sump which doesn't offer too much space for a heating element. Another head-scratching moment is to make a hole for the heating element thought the oil pan.

Contact heater is much less work. It spreads the heat over the oil pan and there are no problems with local hot spots which could damage the oil.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by NHB

I would consider leaving 600 watt block heater pugged in all night only when it's really cold outside (-20 °F or colder). Usually 1-2 hours is enough for a normal I4-engine. A huge V8 might need more time.

I would rather have 600 watt block heater working together with a 200-300 watt oil heater. Oil heater heats the oil much faster than any block heater.

It very rarely gets to -20°F, but when it does get below 0°F I will usually leave one plugged in after I go to bed.

[oil pan 4]

This is a big block Chevy engine not much is compact.
Cutting a hole and welding the heater in is the easy part for me.

Does anyone know if these stick on heater are effective?
Has anyone put a flir or pyrometer on an oil sump with one of these sticky heaters.
I just doubt their effectiveness.

[skyking]

going to investigate a block heater like this for our beetles.
Engine Block Freeze Plug Heater - Kats 10416 - 38mm Diameter 400 Watts | eBay
Darn freeze plugs are on the backside, so it is a lift job.
EDIT: apparently I don't have any soft plugs to remove. I am stuck with a $100+ tank heater or just glue on a pad and live with some oil heating.

[gumby79]

Christmas week it dropped to -23°f . I was not home so I did not have access to a plug . This resulted in a NO START could bearly turn over at first ,then not at all. I had a 1week old battery, 1month old altnator anf external regulator, 1.5 year old starter. The only part of the system that remains 26years old is the wiring. 3 days later it warmed to a high of +23°f and she fired up no sweat (without a jump or change), but smokey.

[slowmover]

Originally Posted by skyking

I will put the cord in my heater and run it on the Kill-a-watt to see what it pulls. Great discussion!
Do you have a link for the stick on pads that you have used?

Thx.

Though I have access to 30 and 50A I'd like to have "test" data. Thx

[oil pan 4]

Block heaters draw what they are rated for + or - about 1%.
They are not like other electronics where have a TV for example, it will have a name plate rating of 3 amps but never draws more than 2 amps.
Nope heating elements like this draw what they are rated for.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

This one is easy.
Install a second stock engine block heater or find your vehicles stock heater, get 2 of them and install.

What does that do?
You might think it wastes double the power.
It actually saves power. Instead of leaving the standard single 600 watt heater plugged in all night I have found that you really only need about two hours with double block heaters to reach close to the same level of heat you get running a single block heater all night.

ALL NIGHT? 😜

Isn't two hours enough with one heater???

[oil pan 4]

That's the typical way people use them.
I leave it plugged in all night, to an outlet on a switch that I turn on when I think it's time, 15 minutes to 2 or 3 hours before start time.
Most people don't have their block heater on an inside switch.

[Frank Lee]

Inside switch is best or if one has a consistent schedule those little indoor/outdoor timers are cheap and effective.

Metro did a block heater test. I use as a rule of thumb that one hour on won't achieve maximum temperature gain but it is almost there and quite enough to be helpful; more than two hours on doesn't achieve much of anything but heating the great outdoors and running up the electricity bill.