[minutiesabotage]

I live in New England...and well...its -7F outside right now...so yea, thats cold. My car rarely gets driven for more than 10-15 min, so it barely has a chance to warm up, same with my hands. I dont want to waste gas or scratch my cylinders by idling it for 20 min every morning. Would the engine heater(JCW) that heats and pumps the coolant through the engine work to solve this problem? They only cost about 35 bucks, and I figure, driving with a warmed up car is saving gas, so what do you guys think?

 

[pumaboyairn]

well, if you like overheating your engine by this "freeze plug" blowing out from being corroded, then yeah, this is ideal. I have a 97 that had an engine heater on it, never used it until recently as it was used to help fill up my garbage can. I was simply cruisin down the road one day then, poof! Away goes all my antifreeze/ engine coolant in a nice long trail of white smoke. Didn't know what happened til about 2 miles later when the engine died from heat. I saw that the antifreeze level was low so I added some water to it, and as fast as I poured it into the reservoir, it splattered on the ground under the car. Nice I thought, so $1200 and 2 months later, I was back on the road again, with a new engine (from a 2002, with less than 5000 miles on it!). This would be really nice if the hardware that came with it was uncorrodable, if that's even a word.

 

[shoz123]

If it is the kind that is connected tot he heater hoses, I never found them very effective unless they were left on all night. At 1500 watts you won't be saving any money running one. Around me that is $0.22 per hour.

 

[JCC]

Tank heaters are stand alone devices connected to the engine by hoses. Usually via a hose plumbed into the block drain for supply and a heater hose for return. These heat all the coolant including coolant in the heater core, so you have warm air immedieatly on start up(if installed correctly).Block heaters(freeze plug heaters)only heat the coolant in the block and primarily only on the side the heater is on in a V engine,( depending on the coolant flow design). Both come in varies sizes, read that diferant wattages for differant size cooling systems. Pumaboyairn, this is why antifreeze should be changed regullarly and at least yearly inspections of these componants. Even then it could still happen. Haven't had one blow out in 40 years. Poor plumbing is why tank heaters don't work right.

 

[JasonBVHS]

Hey puma where did you get your ground efects at?

 

[minutiesabotage]

Yea, wanna do that in private msgs please? It would be nice if this forum stayed on topic.