Orange4boy's Rescue and Revival of a 2003 Prius

[orange4boy]

Also, I assumed you were referring to the Previa when you said you wanted to heat the oil/trans pans. LOL

Ah. That makes sense now.

The Prius pans are both pretty small but I have some cheap little 140W elements that could be bent to shape and clamped to the pans somehow. Possibly by way of the studs you mentioned. Good tip. Hadn't thought of that. I could back them up with a bit of appliance insulation so the heat goes mostly one way.

They were $4 each so I'm not worried about losing one or two in the process of trying them out. I'll take pics when I get around to it.

[bwilson4web]

<GROAN>

I just realized an inductive heater would solve the oil pan problem very nicely. Sure enough, there is a commercial product:

carparts.com/OUR-BEST-UL-APPROVED-MAGNET-MOUNT-ENGINE-BLOCK-HEATER/GP_2000836_N__10618.car?zmam=73771597&zmas=17&zmac =99&zmap=10618-2000836

Have any of you' all used these before?

Bob Wilson

[orange4boy]

There are also coolant warmers:

TANK-TYPE ENGINE HEATER
Fast starts all winter long
Built-in thermostat prevents overheating and burnout. Keeps engine warm by circulating warm engine coolant through entire engine. Quicker heater and defroster output. Connects to 5/8" heater hose—operates on regular AC house current. 120 volt. With 1-ft. grounded cord and instructions.
750-Watt. Warms 4-cylinder engines in 2-3 hours, 6-cylinder engines overnight.
Imported Car Adapter. Adapter required for all Mercedes (Not included).

I'm not sure how it circulates coolant through the entire engine if the thermostat is closed. Anyone know or is it a misleading statement?

Darin tested an inline coolant and a bolt on type...http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...-warm-817.html

[orange4boy]

Bugger! Got the wrong part. My usual parts guy had gone home by the time I got there and a young guy got one for me. It's too long to even get it lined up with the hole. It would probably fit with the tranny out but that's not going to happen, is it. So it's back to the parts place. Shoulda' known and checked the application list while I was there.

I think It needs to be the 90˚ style.

[orange4boy]

I've been trying to find info on adjusting my headlights which are way too high but my alldata info shows the air vent as the adjustment bolt!!??

Bob? Have you done this on yours?

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by orange4boy

I'm not sure how it circulates coolant through the entire engine if the thermostat is closed. Anyone know or is it a misleading statement?

If it's like mine, it splices into a heater hose, so it circulates (via convection) that loop, avoiding the radiator loop.

[Christ]

The thermostat is there to prevent coolant from leaving the engine/heater circuit.

The thermostat doesn't just open once and stay open, like some people seem to think. It opens when the fluid touching it exceeds it's rated temperature, and closes back up when the temperature falls. It takes several of these events over a period of time to "warm up" an engine package.

You can usually see the first opening event visually, though, if you dont have a dummy gauge. After the first one, they're much less pronounced.

The first time it opens, it lets ambient temp coolant into the engine until the fluid touching the tstat is cooler than it's set point, at which point it closes and begins circulating in just the engine and heater again. Lather, rinse, repeat, except the average temp of the coolant being brought in gradually increases until the tstat just stays open.

[bwilson4web]

Hi,

I've not had occasion to adjust my headlights. Good luck!

FYI, there is an electric pump in the NHW11 heater core loop. I've got a 'tank' heater but after I got a block heater, haven't really looked at what it would take to do the plumbing.

Bob Wilson

[orange4boy]

So the heater core and engine block share a circuit and the rad is separated from that by the tstat. I forgot about that. So the inline coolant heater can circulate (by convection) the coolant thru the block with the tstat closed. Potentially much better pre heat than a block heater especially for the cabin air.

FYI, there is an electric pump in the NHW11 heater core loop.

Could there be a sweet hack here using the existing inline coolant pump and a passive inline heater to really warm the engine/heater core loop? This would be much better/cheaper than relying on the convection of the tank pump's bypass system.

I'm feeling warmer already...

Thoughts?

[Daox]

Sounds like a good idea to me.