Engine Pre-heater Ideas please.

[Lofty79]

Where i live it gets extremely cold in the winter! Last year it was -27 for a good 3 weeks or so. This in my mind causes catastrophic cold grinding wear from cold start. Cant help thinking that heating the Block - Coolant - Oil would cut fuel consumption and extend engine life and reduce defrost time.

Any ideas how would be the best way to do this? Home made ideas plans etc etc. I know you can get dip stick heaters, magnetic sump heaters, coolant pump heaters, just want to find a cheap way to make or buy one.

Cant seem to find a decent uk supplier so that info would be great too. Worth a wee discussion?

Thanks for all your help

[kenney]

http://www.defa.com/heating.php3?lang=3&ndid=&aid=&tid=#

[Lofty79]

Just closed a deal on a kenlowe coolant preheater. It goes in heater matrix pipes and has a cylinder heater and a small pump. plugs into house electrics and gets coolant and indeed block up to near running temp in 30 mins, hot air at the dash and alot less wear in the engine.

Guy accepted £80 which i think is very fair. Just think its a great way to improve overall mpg, reduce engine wear, make it more pleasant on cold frosty mornings. Anyone else fitted this kind of thing? i suppose british climate isnt that bad but after last winter up here it seems like an absolute necessity to me

[Lofty79]

was wondering what any opinions were of preheaters on here? Waste of time? Or beneficial addition?

[Bratty]

Webasto do pre-heaters which do not use your car battery as a scource of power (a bad idea in winter!)

http://www.standheizung.de/

Expensive!!

Dunk

[Lofty79]

aye the one ive bought is a kenlowe and runs off the house electrics was near £400 new but hes had it for sale for a year so £80 just its 2 hours away, seeing if he will post it. hoping for some pleasing results in the winter months

[mikeybutch]

Do you know what it costs to run?Seems to me it may be expensive if it amounts to leaving an electric heater outside in sub zero temps.It is food for thought but I have just tried to park so the front is shielded from the wind chill say up to the garage door.I recall that it used to be possible to cover the engine with a blanket and blank off the rad which I could still do with my 70s Spitfire but thats kept cosy in an integral garage!I think modern oils can cope well with the cold and if anyone should be able to engineer against the cold it s/b the Germans

[Lofty79]

yes the germans got it right, it would cost about 20p for a half hour warm up, and in my mind that HAS to be less than the fuel used to warm engine up or poor mpg driving until warm. But the unit itself is a permanent under the bonnet fix with a water proof push plug at the grill.

[mikeybutch]

yes the germans got it right, it would cost about 20p for a half hour warm up, and in my mind that HAS to be less than the fuel used to warm engine up or poor mpg driving until warm. But the unit itself is a permanent under the bonnet fix with a water proof push plug at the grill.Thats reasonable but I am still not sure if it would be worth the fiddle of plugging in and out andrunning cable every time unless it was in the garage and then it may not be so effective .I can see a risk of driving off and forgetting to unplug.The results of use over acold snap would be interesting to hear .Keep us posted

[JimC64]

Hi there, dunno if anyone is stil laround on this thread, but.........

Re engine block heaters - Its something I've been considering for a while now.

I Admin on a Jag forum that has many many members from the US and Canada where temps get really low, and block heaters as in Scandinavian countires seem to be the norm there.

As per the OP ( Lofty79 ) it can get pretty chilly, even here in Glasgow. Bad winters can see temps fall to -20 or thereabouts, with many weeks of temps at
-10 at least.

I may do some more research when I get the chance, anyone else here have any thoughts on this?

[Doctle Odd]

My sister lives in an apartment in Saskatoon all the parking spaces have a power outlet for a block heater. Apparently everyone uses them as cars are fitted with block heaters, we don't really have this problem in Ireland due to continuous heavy rain.

[ruggedscot]

I lived over in canada a while back - all the cars out there had heaters installed - small two pronged plug and cable under the bonnet and you plugged it in and let it warm up the car - the cost thing you can run the heater through a timer switch - dont need to keep it on all the time have it set to come on before you use the car - trouble then is if you need the car before its warmed up then you defeat the process - you also have to consider driving away with the plug still plugged in to the house, seen this a couple of times and it sure makes a mess...... A neighbour hooked up an interlock that stopped the car starting if the car was hooked up to the power point. Will say it makes a huge difference as the oil is nice and runny and the engine wear does go down significantly if its kept warm when not in use. check the wattage and check the cost and see if you think its worth doing. You could even use a stat to turn down the temperature if its only to maintain the water from icing and to keep the oil runny....

[Doctle Odd]

Perhaps you could adapt a fondue set? :D

[JimC64]

I'm sure that like with anything else, a little time / thought and ingenuity and anything is possible.

Here's a similar discussion on my Jaguarforum with a link below.....
These guys are based in the US / Canada and suffer more extreme and more prolonged / lower temps that we do, so its more of an issue I guess


Pre-heat oil using electric block heater - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum (http://www.************.com/forum/xk8-xkr-17/pre-heat-oil-using-electric-block-heater-83847/)

Ok so its not a permanent solution, but seems to work well as tested and with a little fine tuning could solve the problem for much cheapness compared to the ££££ that was bandies about a few posts ago :beerchug:

[vwcabriolet1971]

I used car with engine heater for a few months in Swedish winter ( ice & snow every where and bitter cold) many years ago and found the heater a life saver ! Most reasonably sized company carparks had posts with elec. supply at every parking place. you simply plugged your car's heater cable in and set a timer. Even with temperatures well below zero engine ( & coolant) was warm after about an hour.

[JimC64]

Yep, this is deffo sumthin I'd love to get around to doing.......We'll be -3 at least tonight and possibly worse. The story is we could be in for another round of -15 to -20 temperatures again........Thats pretty cold for most cars and worse for diesels I think?

Unfortunately time and money just won't allow at the moment