Seeing the Frantz was cooler to the touch in cold weather I picked up some 6 inch pipe insulation, with scissors and clear packing tape I made this cover, insulation factor is R-4.3
Frantz winter cover
- Thread starter jimmyjamesndt
- Start date
Ralph Wood says Frantz sold a heated cover called the Alaska Package many years ago, so this is my attempt to make something that will work, I bought a 60 watt battery pad heater for cheap, I am going to leave the top open for now to take temperature readings, once that is done I will seal the top with insulation.
I had it plugged in for a little over two hours, temperature this am was a few degrees below freezing, the heat pad itself can get up to 180-210F in spots, the Frantz can was anywhere from 80-120F, 60F on the far unheated side, so I think it is working good, I sealed off the top with insulated wrap, interesting to see what it will do in severe cold, I may have to wait until next year for that though.
The insulating wrap is rated for 180F, some areas the bubbles flattened out from the heat so I made a new cover and used 250F aluminized tape on the inside of the cover that contacts the heat pad.
I picked up a smaller pad heater, 1-1/2" X 5", 25 watts, I've read that as a guide you should use 15 to 30 watts per quart of oil for these pads.
Nice set up. Do these tend to freeze up in colder weather?
It's as frozen as the oil in the engines oil pan, it doesnt want to pass through a restrictive element, so not much filtering happening during cold winters.
I fitted a Motor Guard in place of the Frantz this past summer, winter is coming so I made a cover for it too, due to the split nature and tapered halves, its a two piece with velcro, actually three piece, the top is seperate.
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