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?