Engine Block Heater

[Smitty]

Full synthetic oil does wonders for cold starts. A good battery is important too.

 

[wardoghandler]

I think you're going to have to wait until the at least the pre-production units are completed and certified. Then you can get the specifications for a head bolt heater (since the heating elements have to be engineered to fit in a specific sized bolt hole). Once you have that information, you might be able to find an equivalent product already on the market. (For those not familiar with that particular term, it's a heated bolt that gets bolted into either the engine block or into the radiator.)

I'm assuming you have a garage. Even so, you may need to combine this with a blanket to keep the heat in the engine.

Thanks for the info. I have two vehicles with engine block heaters and they work good in extreme weather and take about one hour to heat up at 30 below. Sounds good on head bolt heater in the block! Oil pan heater will be easy as well as a battery blanket!
"Don't believe anything you hear or anything you see till 24hrs later!" Wardoghandler "68-69" First to fight day or night!

 

[RUCRAYZE]

Will you put a ski under the rear end?

????

 

[Muzhik]

Thanks for the info. I have two vehicles with engine block heaters and they work good in extreme weather and take about one hour to heat up at 30 below. Sounds good on head bolt heater in the block! Oil pan heater will be easy as well as a battery blanket!

As soon as I clicked on "Post Reply" I realized it was way past my bedtime; that in this group of unrepentant motorheads more than one person would know what a "head bolt heater" is. I've just never heard of anything else to keep your engine warm. Never heard anything any good about dipstick heaters, so when I got my first car (a VW Rabbit) I just took it to the dealer and asked for them to install a head bolt heater. At the time I didn't know that it was something that would have to be specific to that brand and model.

Shortly thereafter I moved to Fargo, ND, and learned that you did not rent an apartment that did not have either a garage or an external outlet to plug in your car. Most of the places up there had assigned parking that had an outlet assigned to you, and all the places I lived in would have a switch next to the door that would turn the outlet on or off. That meant you could flip the switch when you woke up in the morning, and by the time you walked out you could turn it off knowing your car would be all warmed up.

 

[Muzhik]

I have to take something back: I HAD heard of something else used to warm up your car engine. Back in the days of the Model T and Model A cars, some drivers would put a small oil lamp under the engine. Care had to be taken as it occasionally happened that the lamp would flare up and the car would catch on fire.

 

[BiloxiGeek]

Seems like in Denver we'd get at least one week where the temp never got above 0F. It's not usually cold enough there to warrant block heaters of any type, but 0F for a week or so caused a lot of cars to be a little reluctant to start. I did notice the poor man's solution, shop type drop light with a 60W incandescent bulb hung on the engine overnight. Just enough heat to keep it from freezing even it wouldn't be "warm" in the morning.

Looked kind of funny seeing all the splashes of light underneath cars all around the neighborhood. But it did work.

 

[Ekh]

Will you put a ski under the rear end?

Dipstick heater is another option

 

[Ty]

I recall a dipstick heater, don't know if their still around
Welcome, you've found a great forum for all things Elio.
Just for a giggle, is there a Pep Boys

Hi to all,
Dale and Debbie from Fairbanks,Alaska. We are all in at 12,844. My only concern is getting a block heater installed which is a must in Fairbanks, in winter. I have notified the company several times about my concerns, so far no feed back. I wonder how easy it will be to access a freeze plug when the engine is installed not to mention dumping all the glycol. Hopefully I can get the factory to put the block heater in while the engine is out of the car! Call me paranoid or maybe in possession of the facts! Later D&D

I was stationed at Minot, ND which, I believe, gets colder than Fairbanks. Regardless, my wife drove a Hyundai Santa Fe and there wasn't an available freeze plug for her car so I bought a heater mat which, to oversimplify, was glued to the bottom of the oil pan. I sealed around the edges to be sure it stayed in place. That mat kept here car warm and allowed easy starts even down to -19... Did you know the wind chill factor only matters to living things? Even though we had 30 mph winds with that -19 F, "things" like cars still only get down to the actual temperature. Anyway, the mat was easy to install, did the job, was cheap, and worked flawlessly. I'll do the same with the Elio. Hey, I'll probably even put a 100W "MyHeat" heater ($20) in there and run the cord out the door and then to the house... I do that with my F-350 and despite 3 years at Minot, ND and 2 at Albuquerque, NM (5,800ft elevation - it snows sometimes there), I haven't scraped a window since 2011 when I started doing that... Always parked outside, too.

 

[Ty]

Head bolt heaters... I've never used or seen one but I have installed several block heaters that basically replace a freeze plug with the little heater element. It heats up the antifreeze and, being low on the engine, tended to keep the oil warm as well. Result was the antidepressants already warm so when you turn on the defrost, it work's now. On my truck, Ford put what amounts to a huge hair dryer element in the ductwork so even if I can't plug in my truck, it takes about 15 seconds to start blowing out warm air. Yeah, I'm belittle spoiled. If I remote start it when it is cold, it turns on the defrost, interior heat (and the instant heat element if it is colder out), mirror heaters, rear window defroster, steering wheel heat, and 4 seat heaters. The person in the middle back seat is out of luck. It does this if it is below 72. If it's above 72, it turns on the AC and the cooled front seats.
My Elio will probably sit in a garage but it will be outside all day while I'm at work and I'm sure I'll miss my truck every afternoon at least till my Elio warms up.

 

[Elio Amazed]

Did you know the wind chill factor only matters to living things?

I always chuckle and bite my tounge when the neighbors get so concerned because (on rare occasion) the wind chill factor is predicted to go below what their anti-freeze mix is rated for. I also just shake my head when I see that my next door neighbor has again draped a blanket over the hood of his car overnight "to help to keep the wind chill from getting to the engine."