Super fast warm up mod - Engine insulation

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by Daox

I don't think that my gas engine will get any hotter than your diesel. It will produce more heat, but not get hotter. The cooling system should be more than capable (without a full grill block) of disspating the heat that the engine produces. As it is now, just turning my heater fan to the 2nd setting (of 4) basically stops the engine from warming up any further on the way into work at ~32F/0C. If I turned the fan up I know I can (because I have before) cool the engine down. This all changes once summer rolls around. So, I'll have to plan something for then.

Yeah, what I meant was that your engine produces more heat.
So until it gets hot, you need a warm hat and a good pair of gloves, so that the heater doesn't rob the engine of what heat it has.

In the summer the insulation can be lighter, since there is a smaller DeltaT.

[MetroMPG]

Get that belly pan on & throw whatever insulation you have in there for a trial.

The perfect is the enemy of the good.

[briank]

One thing that affects warm up time is the amount of coolant and oil that needs to be heated. So let's think about some ways of reducing the amount of coolant and oil that need to be warmed up. These would be used only during winter.
A few things that come to mind would be
- inserting objects to displaced some of the volume that would normally be coolant. For example, insert a 1.5 foot 3/4 " diameter solid plastic cylinder into the radiator, insert it in through the cap. (You can take it out in summer)
- Squeeze the radiator and heater supply rubber hoses half-way using mini-clamps
- Use a smaller oil filter (if this is possible)

The insulation ideas mentioned by other others (insulating oil sump, oil filter, Heater supply hoses) while extending time to full cool down, don't address an 8 to 9 hour cooldown where as having less coolant and oil to warm up should reduce time with enriched fuel mixture and the driver may be able to turn on the heat a few minutes sooner.

What prompted this idea is that I have a 2003 Sienna with front and rear heating which took twice the time to heat up compared to my 2008 Scion xB and then I noticed the Sienna has 11 quarts of coolant versus 6.2 quarts for the xB.

Also has anyone tried insulating the heater core supply and return hoses.

Another idea that just came to mind is teeing into the Transmission cooler tubes and feeding the warm transmission fluid through an insulated canister that will warm the radiator as soon as the transmission spins. Scratch that idea.... this is more fluid to heat.

[MetroMPG]

A die-hard modder might consider a seasonal change between a "winter" radiator (smaller volume) and a "summer" one (normal).

[Daox]

Unfortunately, radiator size has nothing to do with warm up time. You must reduce the volume of coolant within the engine block to warm up faster.

[fjasper]

Can anyone think of a clever way to use exhaust manifold heat (which appears very quickly after start) to help other stuff warm up?

Maybe some kind of heat exchanger? Closed loop of fancy synthetic heat-resistant oil that could handle exhaust temps. Oil/air heat exchanger in the exhaust flow (or wrapped around the exhaust pipe), connected to an oil/water heat exchanger in the coolant loop. Complicated, expensive, and probably heavy.

OTOH, small airplanes (and some cars) have heaters that pull warm air off the exhaust manifold, so you could eliminate the heater core loop (maybe 1qt. of coolant, heater core and hoses) and get nearly instant heat. Have to figure out a way to monitor for exhaust gasses in case the exhaust system starts leaking. Dash-mounted CO sensor would handle that, I think.

It would require ductwork from the manifold to the HVAC intake port, and wouldn't pull heat on recirc, but heat and recirc don't usually get used that much together anyway. An intrepid ecomodder should be able to handle a little more adversity than the typical car buyer, so maybe it would work.

I suppose it would create a theoretical increase in the length of time it takes the catalytic converter to warm up and start working, but I doubt it would be significant. Relative to heating up a cat to operating temp, warming the cabin seems like pretty small potatoes.

[Daox]

Heres a discussion on that topic.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...very-7107.html

[abently]

Originally Posted by Daox

Unfortunately, radiator size has nothing to do with warm up time. You must reduce the volume of coolant within the engine block to warm up faster.

Obviously you have forgotten that the coolant thermostat, when cold doesn't actually completely stop the flow of coolant around the engine, therefore meaning a smaller radiator would actually make a difference.

[Daox]

Even if there is some leakage, a smaller radiator is not going to speed warm up times. That tiny bit of coolant is going to be cooled weather it is a large or small radiator.

[Phantom]

Originally Posted by briank

- inserting objects to displaced some of the volume that would normally be coolant. For example, insert a 1.5 foot 3/4 " diameter solid plastic cylinder into the radiator, insert it in through the cap. (You can take it out in summer)
- Squeeze the radiator and heater supply rubber hoses half-way using mini-clamps
- Use a smaller oil filter (if this is possible)...

Another idea that just came to mind is teeing into the Transmission cooler tubes and feeding the warm transmission fluid through an insulated canister that will warm the radiator as soon as the transmission spins. Scratch that idea.... this is more fluid to heat.

Inserting something to displace the coolant could work but it would need to be on the side of the engine block so it can heat up sooner.

I would advise against clamping the radiator hose as it could weaken the hose and burst or pop off at a later time. Insulating it might help but if you want to decrease the volume I would look for a smaller hose.

I would not go for a smaller oil filter as the difference in capacity will only be a few oz and the filter will clog sooner and open the bypass or cause the oil pump to work harder. Stay with the factory size oil filter or go larger.

One more note oil will take longer to heat and cool than the coolant so using that to heat the coolant will not work well when cold but it could help the coolant heat the oil once the car is to operating temp.