Oil pre heater ?

[Mark A S]

I have a mate, who has designed a successful Water pre-heater for race spec cars. I got to thinking the other day regarding us TVR owners where heating up the Oil temp before unleashing mayhem, can take 6/7 miles or so, that if your Engine Oil was already at about 30 + when you started it up, regardless of outside Temperature, would this be an attractive option???
It is workable, it would involve an exchange Dry sump Oil Tank, and some electrics and a wall mounted unit to control all.
Without giving tooooooo much away, if enough of you are interested, I will try and get a prototype up and running, fit it in my own Tuscan, and release the results.
All comments welcome.
My idea is if for around £300 a plug in [ with hidden plug ] unit is available, which can be used with a timer, and thermostat, is this a good idea?

[TVR Dan]

Sounds impressive enough its just getting enough people to use it because at the end of the day its another thing to go wrong and with it being new how hard will it be to get repaired? etc... anyway i would like to see some results of it though? how long does it take to warm? because if it took the same time i think i would rather be driving?

[Zumbruk]

Such things are already widely available, except they heat the water, not the oil. I used to have one in my Range Rover. I wasn't too impressed the day the thermostat in it failed closed circuit & it boiled all the coolant away, then melted its insulation and tripped the house circuit breaker. Changing car plumbing in the blowing snow is not my idea of entertainment. Especially when Kenlowe (wrongly) claimed it was no longer under warranty and initially refused to replace it. Last time I ever buy one of their products.

[KillerJim]

Hi,

I looked into this idea too but from a slightly different angle as I don`t have (easy) access to 240v power.

It involved a water heater inside the oil tank which was connected to an additional 12v battery, it was manually controlled (simple relay) and would require the re-charge of the battery every so often..

Never actually got around to it as I lack the garage space to develop the thing!

James

[Russian Rocket]

have a kelowe water heater on my tusc

use it daily for 3.5y no problems

switch it on 1/2 h before I leave the house

when I start the engine water @ about 60 deg and oil temp comes up very rapidly to 40 deg

still follow warm up until engine @ temp

when I posted about it when it was fitted i got shot down in flames saying it would fail, boil water, burn hoses, trip house circut breaker kill the cat etc

havn't had any problems with it

still needed a rebuild @ 18k though

[markh1]

I would be very interested in one of these. I was thinking along the lines of taking the sump off, driling a hole in the front and fitting a kettle element inside the sump.

[Pink_Floyd]

markh1 said:

I would be very interested in one of these. I was thinking along the lines of taking the sump off, driling a hole in the front and fitting a kettle element inside the sump.

I have thought along the same lines, but thought that there must be some problem as no one has done it. A simple heating element in the oil seems easy. May be as the block is cold the oil would cool down quickly.

[KillerJim]

Very similar to my idea.. 12v heating element in the sump tank - switch inside and connected to the battery. Can`t see any problems other than if you let the oil reach 80c and then push it around a cold engine, not sure how the engine would reach to going from cold to hot so quickly.

I was going to run the element for a few minutes before starting and until operating temp but I`m not sure how long the car battery would last (might be better to use an additional dedicated car battery and re-charge that - I`ve no 240v socket near the car..)

J

[markh1]

I think it would have to be combined with a pre-heater that circulates warm coolant round the engine. That way both the block and the oil are warm. I think I will get a pre-heater in the spring when I put the car back on the road but would really like a device that warms the oil too.

[markh1]

Just spoke to these people

http://www.heatingelementcompany.co.uk/

And they said they can custom make heating elements for oil. I described what I was trying to achieve and that there may be several of us buying them. The nice chap is going to come back to me with prices, specs and fitting possibilities.

[spend]

markh1 said:

I think it would have to be combined with a pre-heater that circulates warm coolant round the engine. That way both the block and the oil are warm. I think I will get a pre-heater in the spring when I put the car back on the road but would really like a device that warms the oil too.

Hmm... Coupled with water heater, electric oil & water pumps, tyre warmers, parafin heater under the diff & gearbox, heated seats, artificial sun... we could really be on to something!

I really think the only thing that bothers me is having a bit of pre-oiling before starting. I can live with warming all the car up gradually - in the UK particularly the tyres!

[markh1]

spend said:

markh1 said:

I think it would have to be combined with a pre-heater that circulates warm coolant round the engine. That way both the block and the oil are warm. I think I will get a pre-heater in the spring when I put the car back on the road but would really like a device that warms the oil too.

Hmm... Coupled with water heater, electric oil & water pumps, tyre warmers, parafin heater under the diff & gearbox, heated seats, artificial sun... we could really be on to something!

I really think the only thing that bothers me is having a bit of pre-oiling before starting. I can live with warming all the car up gradually - in the UK particularly the tyres!

I was thinking of getting a giant heating element for the garage so the whole car would be nice and warm but thought the fibre glass might give of a few fumes as it was 'gently heated'