would this be a bad idea to do to a car during winter storage:

[Ross]

Every winter I store one of my toys (88 pontiac fiero gt 2,000 original miles). The car has always been stored in an unheated garage during the winter. I remove the battery and don't start it until spring.

This winter my cold storage place has electicity.
My car does not have a head bolt heater so I was thinking about buying one of those electric dip sticks things that you replace your oil dipstick with and plug it in to heat the oil prior to starting then put your regular dip stick back in.

I was thinking about heating the oil and starting and drving the car from time to time this winter.

Could I keep this plugged in all winter? or would that collect more moisture in the oil? Or should I just heat the oil prior to starting. I don't drive this car alot so I use conventional oil and dang it gets cold here in the winter.

Any thoughts?

 

[rjundi]

quote:

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Originally posted by Ross:
Every winter I store one of my toys (88 pontiac fiero gt 2,000 original miles). The car has always been stored in an unheated garage during the winter. I remove the battery and don't start it until spring.

This winter my cold storage place has electicity.
My car does not have a head bolt heater so I was thinking about buying one of those electric dip sticks things that you replace your oil dipstick with and plug it in to heat the oil prior to starting then put your regular dip stick back in.

I was thinking about heating the oil and starting and drving the car from time to time this winter.

Could I keep this plugged in all winter? or would that collect more moisture in the oil? Or should I just heat the oil prior to starting. I don't drive this car alot so I use conventional oil and dang it gets cold here in the winter.

Any thoughts?

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Personally I see no reason to do what you do and moisture can be introduced due to fluations in temps. Lastly you are placing an inherent fire hazard on your toy and it would really just be a waste of electricity.

 

[Matt_S]

I certainly wouldn't leave it plugged in all winter. If you were to put in a synthetic 0w30 oil before storage, you really wouldn't need an oil heater at all. If you choose to use an oil heater, I'd say plug it in for an hour before you start the car. Having the engine and all the fluids constantly cold isn't a bad thing, so long as the engine isn't started. I don't think you'd want to have the oil constantly warm while the rest of the engine is at -20.

 

[olddognewtrks]

Regarding your method of heating the oil: Dipstick heaters have very little contact area, and so heat only a small bit of the oil mass. I would suggest a oil pan heater pad, which give much more heat overall, heats a lot of the area from underneath, and tends to heat the block a bit from rising heat coming off of the oil.

 

[JustinH]

i say just change the oil with a good diesel oil and let it sit.

JH

 

[Ugly3]

olddognewtrks - Regarding your method of heating the oil: Dipstick heaters have very little contact area, and so heat only a small bit of the oil mass.

Years ago I used a dip stick heaters in two cars. In very cold weather (maybe -10 degrees) the engine would turn over like the 4th of July.

The units used something like 25 watts so I would leave them on all night.

They served me well until I went out one morning and felt a "tickle" when I touched the car. That was the end of the dip stick heaters for me.

I have 2 new ones, still in the original packaging hanging in the garage. That is where they will stay.