Engine Pre-heater Ideas please.

[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?

[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

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

[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