Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Block Heaters

Just curious as to what some of you guys are using for block heaters to make cold weather starts easier. i have a 250 chevy and was wondering since the intake sets off to the side, would heating the block even help that much? I have seen the magnetic kind that would fasten directly to the intake would that be more useful?

I think a good heater has to preheat the coolant. It may help to keep the manifold heated for intial cold starting, but that effect will soon be gone when the vaporizing fuel cools everything back down. On the other hand warm coolant means a warm long block and the thermal mass of all that warm iron will have a greater longer lasting benefit.

But like my gramma said just before she fell off her Harley, "Sonny, anything is better than nuthin'".

ONLY 2 "GOOD WAYS"
1. IN A FREEZE PLUG HOLE IN BLOCK
2. IN OIL PAN ( YOU MUST WELD A BUNG IN PAN SIDE TO INSTALL IT)
3. IN COOLANT HOSE ( VERY POOR DESIGN)
4. GOOD CAN OF STARTING FLUID


SURE MUST BE COLD WHERE YOU LIVE !!!!!

not really all that cold, we see single digits a few days out of the year, most of winter morning temps in teens to 20's. maybe i just need a good tune up. all i know is that once it gets down around 30 or so outside, the truck will start initially and then die, kind of like its emptying the gas in the carb or the the fuel line. then i have to crank it a few times and pump the accel to get it fired back up. it runs kinda rough for a few minutes till the engine gets good and warm. just tryin to remedy that. any suggestions are welcome.

IF THE TEMPS ARE IN THE 30S - 40S YOU MAY BE GETTING CARB ICING, WHICH HAPPENS WHEN AIR (USUALLY ABOVE THE FREEZING point) LADEN WITH MOISTURE, passes through the carb through the throttling process which lowers both the pressure and temperature below the freezing point of water in the air. It freezes up on the throttle plates, idle circuits, boosters, etc. The reason this happens at temps just above freezing is that once the air temp is below 32F it has very little capacity to hold water vapor.

In the case of carb icing what you need most is a carb air heater; ducting the inlet air across the hot exhaust manifold so that the air becomes pre-heated to the point that carb icing cannot take place. You can use factory parts to do this or make a facsimile if you are handy.
Good luck.

6re6

Do you have the high idle when the choke is on set to right RPM? This will make it idle rough and die if to slow.

YOU CAN ALSO RUN SOME 'HEAT" GAS TREATMENT IN WINTER MONTHS. MY 250 IS COLD NATURED ALSO BUY IT IS VERY TIRED AND DONE ALOT OF WORK IN ITS LIFE. ALMOST GOT A 292 READY FOR IT.

There are oil pan heaters available that glue on to the bottom of the pan, I've got one on my plow truck.

A 300 Watt pan heater with two 600 watt (each) freeze plug (one in each bank, yeah V Thingy) one in the front of the block, and one in the back should preheat the engineqickly enough.

Locally they tell you to preheat below 20* F for two hours, I can get the same BTUs in roughly 40 minutes.

Not saying I do that (seems like it would be a thermal shock) so instead I plug it in, then start digging and scraping till the windows are clean (on the outside) and I can get in without having it dump snow on the seat.

As you can imagine, I don't have a carport or shed to park it in, no room in the garage either.

That can be anywhere from 15-25 minutes (I plug it in then go get the digging and scraping tools ).

Makes a heck of a difference in how quick it warms up, and more importantly, how quick it will put enough heat out the defroster to keep the windows clear.

NOW I'D SAY THIS FELLA ^ NEED A ENGINE HEATER WHERE HE LIVES