Originally Posted By: CurtisB
Aside from reducing start-up wear, coolant heaters of all sorts prevent coolant leaks under the extreme contraction of cold ambient temperatures. I have had many a leaky coolant system on an engine left to the outside elements. Sometimes once they start leaking, they don't stop even after warmed up and you have a repair on hand. I can't count how many times I've found new leaks on cold/frozen engines. With a coolant heater plugged in, they never leak.
Engine blocks that are warm have lower start-up oil pressure than engines that are cold. This is largely in part to bearing clearance. Engines that are frozen have incredibly tight bearing clearance and that can contribute to accelerated wear. An engine under the warmth of a heater of sorts, when started, has oil pressure much lower. Why? because the clearance has increased. The tighter the bearing to journal clearance in an engine the more wear you get. Thick cold oil is a contributor too, and I'm not naïve to that fact.
Every vehicle I own gets plugged in on a timer (factory frost plug heater), full synthetic oil, and is equipped with an insulated winter-front.
Oil pan heaters are great at supplementing a coolant heater, but with full synthetic oil I don't feel the need.
Winter-fronts are so often forgotten about nowadays - block airflow into the radiator and you get more heat into the cabin and a much faster warm-up. You will never hear me complain about having an inefficient heater and cold cabin, because I have a winter-front.
You've got some interesting "facts" there. Yet, my matellurgy class says that metal contracts with the decrease in temperature and expands with the increase in temperature. But that was years ago, perhaps "modern" metals don't do that anymore lol.
Aside from reducing start-up wear, coolant heaters of all sorts prevent coolant leaks under the extreme contraction of cold ambient temperatures. I have had many a leaky coolant system on an engine left to the outside elements. Sometimes once they start leaking, they don't stop even after warmed up and you have a repair on hand. I can't count how many times I've found new leaks on cold/frozen engines. With a coolant heater plugged in, they never leak.
Engine blocks that are warm have lower start-up oil pressure than engines that are cold. This is largely in part to bearing clearance. Engines that are frozen have incredibly tight bearing clearance and that can contribute to accelerated wear. An engine under the warmth of a heater of sorts, when started, has oil pressure much lower. Why? because the clearance has increased. The tighter the bearing to journal clearance in an engine the more wear you get. Thick cold oil is a contributor too, and I'm not naïve to that fact.
Every vehicle I own gets plugged in on a timer (factory frost plug heater), full synthetic oil, and is equipped with an insulated winter-front.
Oil pan heaters are great at supplementing a coolant heater, but with full synthetic oil I don't feel the need.
Winter-fronts are so often forgotten about nowadays - block airflow into the radiator and you get more heat into the cabin and a much faster warm-up. You will never hear me complain about having an inefficient heater and cold cabin, because I have a winter-front.
You've got some interesting "facts" there. Yet, my matellurgy class says that metal contracts with the decrease in temperature and expands with the increase in temperature. But that was years ago, perhaps "modern" metals don't do that anymore lol.
