With slowly creeping in, i'm thinking about getting one of these...

Edit: I forgot to put "WINTER" in the title. doh.


https://store.europarts-sd.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2272



But I don't know how long it takes to heat the coolant to operating temps (if it even raises it to those temps), if it circulates the coolant or not, and it it's reliable.

Does anyone have any input?

@svaric2,

Had one installed on my T1N. I kept it plugged in over night and it worked great. Only took a few seconds for the glow plugs and the engine was already warm. It did NOT get it up to operating temperature but I could fell and hear the difference pre-heated and not.


SprinterUSA1

hmm. but how warm did it keep the coolant at? 110? 140? 160?

And you say you have to leave it on overnight, you can't just plug it in for 2 or 3 hrs to warm things up in a jiffy?

I wonder what is the cheaper (with price of fuel in mind nowadays) set up now, burning diesel with the ESPAR and the timer, or running a block heater on a timer

I have the coolant heater on my wifes VW. It is set on a timer to come on about 1 1/2 hours before she goes to work in the winter. According to the temp gauge on her car when she first starts it it's around 130 degrees and once the water pump starts to ciculate it drops down a little bit.

The car starts easier when it is really cold out. It circulates the coolant by convection so it needs to be installed properly so as to allow this.

Aside from the heated leather seats I installed this is one of the best things I've done to the car.


Nate

thanks for the input Nate.

But if im not mistaken, convection means heat transfer, no? Then that means it doesn't circulate the coolant, it just heats it up in one point and the coolant surrounding that point gets warmer and warmer, with the warmth slowly spreading out. Isn't that what convection means?

Convection is the principle that cold gases or fluids sink or fall and hot gases or fluids rise (it's a density thing ..... )

Svaric2, convection means that the system circulates water with out a pump. That is why it is so important that the heater is installed properly. When done right the coolant is able to freely flow through the engine and coolant system there by heating the block and coolant.

If it isn't installed right then the heater will only heat the coolant inside it and then just cycle itself.

A blockheater doesnt heat up the oil very warm. It was never soposed to, it just keeps the coolant at a nice tempurature so the engine can turn over much more easily. On your temp gauge on the van, once started it will still hang off the "bottom" of the guage. However, if left plugged in over night (on the real cold nights) it takes maybe 4 seconds for the coils to go out. Hell, the coils go out faster it seem in the winter months with the blockheater plugged in, then in the summer months! And heat comes a lot faster after a start with the BH plugged in.

My blockheater broke on me, and I put it off, then the van would not start, I was really mad. Found out the van doesnt like to start around -30*C-ish But if your winters get cold, its a must, or get a pan heater.

yeah, I was thinking about getting an oil pan heater, http://www.jcwhitney.com/HEATER-OIL-PAN-KITS/GP_2005253_N_111+10201+600001648_10101.jcw , which you just stick underneath the oil pan. But I'm scared it will unstick in time, or on a bumpy road.

I've also found these two and I'm wondering if they'd be better than what europarts-sd has...

http://www.jcwhitney.com/ZEROSTART-...RS/GP_2000837_N_111+10201+600001648_10101.jcw (But im not sure if this can bypass the thermostat)

http://www.jcwhitney.com/OUR-BEST-U...ER/GP_2000836_N_111+10201+600001648_10101.jcw (I don't know how and where I would mount this)

That last link, looks to be the same oil pan heater me and my uncle got to try and get my van working in the -30*c degree weather. It just magnets right on your oil pan. Thing is, the oil pan on a sprinter isnt metal, so magnets dont stick, we had to get some wood shims and jam them between some cross beams. Later we found out that this crappy pan heater was meant for small cars! They make different sized pan heaters for how big your oil resavoir is. So make sure if you lean towards the pan heater, look first for how much it can handle! For a sprinter, you need I think it was either an 800 or 1000 watt heater.

Me, I like my block heater. Its simple, and it works great. Mind you I never installed it, and its not as easy as a pan heater but it also wont fall off

AzteK said:

That last link, looks to be the same oil pan heater me and my uncle got to try and get my van working in the -30*c degree weather. It just magnets right on your oil pan. Thing is, the oil pan on a sprinter isnt metal, so magnets dont stick, we had to get some wood shims and jam them between some cross beams. Later we found out that this crappy pan heater was meant for small cars! They make different sized pan heaters for how big your oil resavoir is. So make sure if you lean towards the pan heater, look first for how much it can handle! For a sprinter, you need I think it was either an 800 or 1000 watt heater.

Me, I like my block heater. Its simple, and it works great. Mind you I never installed it, and its not as easy as a pan heater but it also wont fall off

Click to expand...

The Sprinter's oil pan is not made of metal? It sure looks metal. Hmm. I learn something new everyday.

I'd be really curious to try the blanket style oil pan heater (second to last link). Just scared it'll fall off. But I'll definately get the coolant heater from europarts if you guys say its good.

Thanks again for the input guys.

I think AZ meant to say it wasn't ferrous metal

What does the oil pan heater get up to for a temperature?

I have always been cautious of them for fear that they get to hot and turn the oil in the pan into a sludge of sorts.

I may be over catious but just curious.

the heaviest duty oil pan heater on their site is 250 watts, and they advertise that it heats 6 quarts of oil 100 F in 2hrs. I know its just a rough estimate, as fluid dynamics change at diff temps. But I think it'd be good for my use, since the coldest weather my sprinter has seen is -10 F.

I don't think it will heat so much as to turn the oil into sludge, especially not the synthetic mobil 0W-40 which I use.

Reminds me of a story. In 1973 I was hitchhiking from Paris to Singapore. I got ride from Istanbul to Tabriz, Iran in a VW bus. The heater didn't work and the temperature was probably 20 below Celsius in January. I decided to bail out and catch a heated bus to Teheran. On my way to the station I came across a German guy building a kindling wood fire under the oil pan of his Hanomag van (They had Mercedes diesel motors). We got to talking. I knew very little about diesels at that point. He explained that diesels don't like to start when that cold. Once he got it fired up he offered me a ride to New Delhi if I chipped in for fuel. 2 Danish guys and another American were already on board. He was a hell of a driver having already made 20 driving trips to India and selling his van when he got there. He knew the route with all the fuel stops and had various friends along the way. As it turned out, the Pakistan India border was only open one day a month due to the fact that they had been at war. We detoured to Karachi from Kandahar, Afghanistan, via North Waziristan through Spinboldak to wait a week or so. (This is where Bin Laden is rumored to have hidden out) Warmer weather than hanging in Kabul. The old Hanomag van fired right up in the mornings without a fire underneath. Anyhow, a lot of the place we stopped didn't have electricity. and if they did, it looked like if he had plugged in the block heater it would have taken the whole villages power system down. That's the short version. Many more adventures transpired.