oil pan heater

[Lloyd Henry]

What do you guys think of a oil pan heater, the kind that looks like a heating pad that is glued to the pan? I have a Dodge with a Cummins engine that has to sit out side when I am at work and was thinking of getting one of these and use it along with the block heater. Would it burn the oil?
Thank you
Lloyd

 

[D-Roc]

No, it won't burn the oil- I have and use a Wolverine Model 40 and it works great, on my Cummins. Well worth it.

 

[barnbridge]

I've been using Wolverine model 16 250 watt oil pan heater for 3 years on my F-250. It's wonderful. The engine purrs even on very cold mornings. I wired the oil pan heater and the block heater cords together and attached them to a Marinco socket that mounts into the bumper. They are on a timer for 3 hours every morning. when I start the truck the heat is warm and the engine is happy.

 

[D-Roc]

I usually only use mine for an hour and a half or so on mornings past -15C. It's all I need and makes a big difference in starting. If I use the block heater with it I have heat before I am out of the driveway!

 

[1040 WreckerMan]

I use oil pan heaters on a lot of my stuff. All of my Cummins have oil heaters. My PowerStroke's OEM heater will heat both the coolant and oil.

We run pan heaters on a lot of our stuff at work that is run up North. Our starter motors live a much longer, happier life.

 

[D-Roc]

Quote:

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I use oil pan heaters on a lot of my stuff. All of my Cummins have oil heaters. My PowerStroke's OEM heater will heat both the coolant and oil.

We run pan heaters on a lot of our stuff at work that is run up North. Our starter motors live a much longer, happier life.

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You mention your Cummins have pan heaters- are those Dodge Cummins? What model pan heater do you use and how many watts?

 

[Lloyd Henry]

Thank you all for all the information. Industrial Diesel Products Inc out of Ontario, Canada has the oil pan heaters, Battery warmers, and even a fuel filter heater that I was thinking about buying but wanted to make sure that the heaters worked. I live in North Dakota and it gets cold here too. At my day job the truck has to sit in the parking lot with no way to plug it in and when it is -20 degrees it starts but it isn't happy. I am thinking of buying a power generator and bolting in the box and plugging the heaters into that. I would just fire up the generator about 4 hours before quiting time. Does anyone else do this? I am not sure what size generator I would need but was thinking about a 4ooo watt generator would do the trick. What do you guys think? Is there a better way?
thank you all again
Lloyd Henry

 

[TedT]

I can tell you your block heater draws 700 watts. So if you add a 250 watt pan heater you will be at 950 watts. Even a 2000watt generator would be over kill. Have you thought about using a winter front? This will help the engine warm much faster once the engine is running. A too large generator won't work hard enough and at those temps. will run too cold. Not good for the engine.
Ted

 

[Lloyd Henry]

TedT thank you for the info. I do use a winter front in fact it is already on the truck. It is the cold starts that bother me. I know the truck will always start but it has to be hard on it.
the generator I was thinking of was the gas powered portable one. If I bolt it to the box nobody would be temped to walk off with it and it wouldn't be sliding around the box. If I used one of these I wouldn't have to worry about the fact that there is no way to plug it in at work. I would come out at lunch and fire it up and in 4 hours when I get off work it should be down right toasty. I would plug in the block heater, oil pan heater, 2 battery warmers. Thank you for letting me know about the generator being too big I didn't think of it and just wasnt sure how big a one i should get. could you recommend a good brand of generator?
Sorry about being so long winded thank you again for the all the info
Lloyd

 

[TedT]

I got a Chinese unit at PepBoys. It's 2300 watts intermitant, and 2000 watts continuous. About $230 after rebate. I use mine on the job site and it has proven to be very reliable. It's a Honda clone. My only reservation in recommending it is that cold starting could be a little easer. A real Honda, or equivalent will be a whole lot more. PepBoys also had a two stroke 1200 watt unit that I tried. Was even cheaper, ran real well, and was good on gas. However it developed a knock after a few days. It went back, and I got the 2300 watt unit. Has about 70 hrs. on it now no problems. I use Rottela 5w40 synth. in it.
Good luck, Ted

 

[TedT]

You know, it's perhaps a gallon of gas to run the above generator for 3 or 4 hours. Do you really want to spend over $3.00 a day to do this? I also forgot to mention this generator has a 12 volt output too and is brushless.
Ted