Underside light bulb heater for oil pan

[old stovebolt]

Also have one of these - used before rural electrification ..not much use these days with block heaters...

- and thanks Greg for the image upload instructions using imageshack

What is all that white stuff on the ground????? Never seen that in CA.

[T120]

..Yes,that's snow,had to shovel the stuff the last few days clearing the sidewalk.The temperature is about -15 F. at the moment and yes my truck will be plugged in tonight.

With weather like this I'm almost tempted to follow the snowbirds south.California sounds like a good place to spend the winter.

[PatS....]

My Dad used to use charcoal bbq briquettes under the pan in the -40 weather, along with a block heater and bringing the battery in the house.

Then...he built a heated garage

[thrashingcows]

Try one of these...I'm getting one for my Cummins diesel, just sticks to the bottom of your oil pan...warm oil and a warm motor means less wear and tear from cold oil, and cold start.

http://www.wolverineheater.com/

[B-Watson]

Having lived most of my life on the Canadian prairies with -40 winters, I can attest to the effectiveness of the simple block heater. An inline engine can use one but V6 and V8 engines could use one of each side of the engine.

When I lived in Edmonton I had a 1984 Renault Fuego with an oil pan heater. The car had, from the factory, element wires crossing the bottom of the oil pan. Worked great. Even in -40 weather the heater would be blowing warm air in less than 10 minutes. And the car started easier as well with the warm oil being pumped to all parts of the engine.

As a kid when the family went out for the evening in winter Dad would bring along a blanket. When we arrived at our destination, he would open the hood and place the blanket over the engine. It helped retain heat. Two or three hours later when we were ready to head home, the car started with no problems.

Bill

Toronto, ON

[central52]

I checked out those Wolverine oil pan heaters. It seems they are small strips, 2 x 6 inches long and attach to the bottom of oil pan. Gives off, I think, about 125 watts of juice. It's like those heating pads we use to warm our sore arms and shoulders.

Now I know it goes directly to metal, but wouldn't a 100 watt lite bulb underneath do the same thing? If you keep it really close to the pan? Anyone have experience with one these units? Ed

[Young Ed]

Problem with a bulb is one drop of oil or water and BOOM no more bulb. All this talk has got me thinking of getting one too. Not because I'm worried it won't start but it'd be nice to have heat a lot sooner.

[knighthawk]

I remember 1 time;when I was working for this trucking company in Minn in the 70's, maybe early 80's, we had a couple sales men from Texas come to show us their'' cold weather starting aid'. It was a very small flame thrower type burner, that was installed in the intake manifold. Was a good idea but..... in those days we still ran 30 wt oil year round , always had them running , plugged in, or started every few hours..... so..... these guys said not to plug them ,just let them get good and cold ! Just so happened it was way below zero that nite, they came from the airport in summer clothes, hit the starter button,..... the only noise was a click and a grunt from the trucks, and the slamming of their car doors , heading back to the airport ! the sales men said '' well, it worked in the lab " ,

[thrashingcows]

I remember 1 time;when I was working for this trucking company in Minn in the 70's, maybe early 80's, we had a couple sales men from Texas come to show us their'' cold weather starting aid'. It was a very small flame thrower type burner, that was installed in the intake manifold. Was a good idea but..... in those days we still ran 30 wt oil year round , always had them running , plugged in, or started every few hours..... so..... these guys said not to plug them ,just let them get good and cold ! Just so happened it was way below zero that nite, they came from the airport in summer clothes, hit the starter button,..... the only noise was a click and a grunt from the trucks, and the slamming of their car doors , heading back to the airport ! the sales men said '' well, it worked in the lab " ,

Too funny....some engineers don't deserve the certificate on their wall. I could tell you all kinds of engineering stories from when I used to work for an underground site service company...laying all the pipe for new subdivisions. The things these "engineers" would ask us to do and build...sheesh...you could tell they had no real world practical experience.

[55 Fargo]

Here you go, a pic of my 1955 Fargo 251 flattie with vintage block heater...

[Captain Neon]

Not to insult our Californians, as I know this guy not typical, but I had a guy working w/ me in Minnesota that had never seen snow. Come September, he started asking about the "HEET stuff for the gas." Minnesota has used E-10 since about 1996. We told the guy not worry about it as the 10% ethanol in the gasolene did the trick. Next day, same question, so we told him HEET was a brand name for fuel line antifreeze, and that it was available just about any where, Wal*Mart, K-Mart, gas station, NAPA, AutoZone. Add a bottle when filling up, and no problems. Same guy asked the same question the next day. We told him that he should wrap the fuel line with a flexible pipe wrap heater and plug it in every night. This he did.

After a couple of weeks of doing this, and the temperature dropped below 40*F for the first time, he complained that it was too cold to lie on the ground and plug his car in at night so he stopped doing it.