Engine block heater

I'm looking for an engine block heater for my 59. Since my jeep will eventually head to the mountains, I'd like to add one for those few really cold nights and easier winter starting. Any ideas?

 

I think best would be an in line you add to the coolant hose for the radiator. I don't really think heaters for the oil are too safe fire wise. Head bolt heater would probably be good to but not sure if they are made anymore

 

My '51 Chevy 4 door had a Kats heater that mounted in the heater hoses. Worked pretty well in Glenwood but I had to get up a couple of hours before work to plug it in. Worked well, if you left the temp control open, the windshield would be 1/3 defrosted. I have one on Commando that I just left plugged in all night so the trip to the hospital was quicker in the morning.

 

I would recommend a block heater - it takes the place of one of the freeze plugs. I put mine on the easiest to get to freeze plug opening on the drivers side. I try to stay away from the heaters mounted in the hoses (if you're really going to use it).
Out of 30 or so vehicles I can think of right now all but 1 has the block heater - the only one that doesn't has a heater that mounts in the heater hoses because a block heater wouldn't go in to the freeze plug opening.

 

They make stick on or magnetic heaters that attach to your oil pan. Check out tractor parts dealers for one of those. I think that its questionable what the benefit of preheating a gasoline engine would be, however. I don't think that it will help cold weather starting but will improve the time that the heater starts working. Because of this, your best bet is an inline coolant heater.

 

Poster Serehill on IFSJA makes a strong case for the glue-on oil pan heaters. http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=177317

 

I'm gonna guess you've never tried to start a gas engine in -25 or colder? Gas just doesn't prefer to ignite when it's that cold. Add to that oil that is like tar, and it's hard to get it to spin fast enough to fire.

 

Spent the first part of my life living in Montana, and seeing -40F wasn't even noteworthy in the wintertime. And especially on carbureted vehicles, an engine heater of some sort is almost neccessary, if you're going to park it outside. You *might* get it to start if it's not plugged in, but it's by no means guaranteed. Fuel Injected stuff seems to be better about it, but as ITLKSEZ stated, even a fuel injected motor is going to have oil that looks about like tar at those temperatures, and why put the extra wear and tear on the Rod, Cam and Main bearings, not to mention the rockers, trying to push that thick crud through the engine?

 

You have a good point. I've never experienced anything close to -40*, with the average that I've dealt with being in the 20's. At -40 I would think that any little bit helps!

 

I should add that here in virginia, I don't even have problems with our diesels starting without a block heater (we have 3 of them).

 

I have fired the V6 3B at -30. It just takes too long for the oil pressure to build up. Huh, that is why you are supposed to run light weight oil in those temps?

 

X2 - I had a heater installed on the heater hose for years in my '70 CJ5 - worked fine.

 

A few years ago I had to go to the hospital for my dailey 10:00 antibiotic infusion. It is only about two miles to the place but in the middle of the winter, It was nice to avoid sitting there waiting for things to warm up a bit. I did go out about twice a week to burn out the condensation.

 

I'm thinking I'm going to go with the engine block method. That is the tried and true method and the method big car manufactures do on new cars.

 

I lived in an area where -40 was not unusual in the winter. I drove a civic at the time with a block heater - a lot of my friends had also a battery blanket. I didn't touch anything made of plastic until the car was warm and we drove away on "square" tire for a few miles.

 

I lived outside of Fairbanks during High School. Graduated in 1969.
If the temp got up to -10 F we figured we were experiencing a heat wave.
-40 was more like normal for most of the winter. I have seen the temp all the way down to -67 F. Without the chill factor from any breezes that might be wandering around.
At the house with the cars in a heated garage, they were both plugged into a wall socket and had heaters in the lower hoses.
( a heated garage meant that the temperature in the garage was a nice balmy 0 F.) At the University of Alaska where one of them parked during the day, you either plugged it in there if you had a spot that had an electrical outlet wired into the post your bumper rested against (Professors got these, My uncle was the Dean of Engineering at the time), or you carried two sets of keys and left the car running and locked while you were in class. Your vehicle also benefited from having both the transmission and differentials warmed up to 0 F. Otherwise you could not even turn those square tires over until at least the tranny (and transfercase) warmed up a little. It was also nice not having to scrape windows for ten minutes standing out in that cold. Let me tell you, that half mile walk and the wait for the schoolbus was no fun at all. Especially if there was a wind.
This is one of the reasons I live in Arizona just outside of Phoenix, now. Only snows once a year in the years it does snow. I have seen snow on the ground 6 times since 1987.

I will say from personal experience, that a couple of brickets in a hub cap will warm the oil pan and oil up nicely in an emergency!

 

I have bought several of the Kats magnetic heaters, I am an Equipment mechanic for the Railroad and they work very well I was worried at first about them burning the oil but an engine is a good heatsink and haven't had a problem. Sometimes we use several if we have to get a machine lit off that's been sitting in the cold put them on the bottom radiator tank if its steel the hydraulic tank 2 on the oil pan and even on the diesel tank if its cold enough and hook them all up to the welder on my service truck takes 45 minutes to an hour to thaw them out but a lot of the newer engines have pistons with a coating on them or a grid heater in the air intake and you can't use ether on them. T.J.