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Does anyone use oil pan heaters on their bolts? If so, what brand and what wattage rating?

I fired up the '64 this past weekend and she lifter ticked for a bit and took 10 or so seconds to build oil pressure properly before she quieted and ran like a top. She's always barn kept but it was only 15*F out and its not surprising since I keep her on a diet of Rotella T4 15W40 which gets thick at those temps. During the engine rebuild a few years back I didn't successfully find a frost plug block heater like I wanted. Even if a block heater was installed an oil pan heater on the sump would still be good for direct heating of the oil itself to prevent cold start wear.

There are magnet oil pan heaters available.

Ed

Here's some examples. Link
NAPA usually carries a few types.
Tractor Supply has the magnetic ones available. Link

I would say the 15W-40 is just too much for it, if I remember correctly you have a 292? I run 10W-30 in my 283 with no issues in the cold, and in hot weather it holds 40 psi wound out.

There are also dip stick heaters that may help but a magnetic one would do better

Here is what GMC said about oil viscosity in 1957.

And in 1951. Your Chevy may be different.

The 1957 Chevrolet shop manual calls out 10W-30 for a wide range of temperatures

15w40 might be a bit thick for a gasoline engine in the winter. You could drop down to 10w30 or even 5w30 if you need to run it in the winter.

The magnet heaters help, but I'm aways skeptical at just how effective a couple hundred watts would be on a massive block of iron. You can also get "silicone heating pads" that can stick to the oil pan.

I have one of those magnetic heaters, I used it for a old backhoe that was on my property. Also, I have a kerosene heater (for display only) that is intended for heating the oil pan.It has a mesh cylinder that I am guessing is sort of like they old Coleman lanterns. You were supposed to light it and put it under the oil pan. Never fired it up.

Appreciate the feedback.

I am Leary of the magnetic heaters. We had some on the farm back east and they never really seemed to warm anything up since they have a really small surface area and low wattage. A farmer up the road had a larger higher wattage unit but he swore it off claiming that it would burn and leave residue on the inside of the pan from getting too hot. This was on an old Massey tractor though, so anecdotal evidence at best.

What I was seeing was pad heaters like this https://www.proheatproducts.com/product-page/model-512-csa. A larger surface area, a higher wattage rating, and certain models are thermostatically controlled to not surpass a set temp (200, 250, etc). I am curious if anyone here has run something like this?



To be 100% transparent, I am fully aware that 15w40 is a bit thick for the application. I broke the 292 in on 10w30 and she lived her first few years on a diet of that to make sure all worn in nicely. In an effort to standardize my shop across my equipment line here on the farm I pushed most things over to rotealla 15w40 (less specialized fluids I need to stock) and I chose T4 specifically for the better zinc and phosphorous specs for the flat tappet lifters. Viscosity isn't a problem for any other equipment as I have block heaters on all but the C60. I am also not trying to get block heater type heating from an external unit, just enough heat to keep the oil thin enough for cold starts. Block heater will come when I pull the cooling system apart next.

Non-scientific, but I have found that the 292 really likes the T4 in the warmer months of the year (runs smoother and quieter particularly when hot) and given that the C60 only sees an oil change every 12-18 months (based on mileage and time), I have tried to avoid changing oil every 6 months to swap to a lighter winter oil. Is this the right thing to do? Debatable, it has its pros and cons like with anything else.

I think a stick-on silicone pad heater would be a better solution as well. Kats has those also. Go to the link I posted above and click on Pad Heaters when it opens. EdPruss got me thinking magnetic.
I don't recall for sure, but may have used a pad type oil pan heater on my daughters Mazda pickup when she headed to Fairbanks for college. Also had a battery trickle charger connected to the same plug-in. I have also used a pad type heater under the battery of a truck years ago.

I totally understand the desire to keep most equipment on the same oil, makes it easy to grab a jug and top things off without worrying about what is in the engine. I would try one of the flexible silicone heating pads. My 2000 K3500 diesel had a factory block heater, freeze plug style, worked very well. You might research that application and see if the diameter would work for the 292. Mine was one of the last Detroit/GM 6.5 turbo V8's

I've looked at the Kats. Reliability seems to be hit or miss. Same with the Zerostart from the info I am digging up. Likely low quality units either made in china or made from Chinese sourced parts (granted what isn't anymore these days). I found the proheat that I linked above which seems to have some better reliability. Then I stumbled on E-Z Heat https://www.e-zheat.com/other-engines which seems to specialize in pads for aircraft with built in limiting thermostats. Given the FAA approved application one would infer that these should be of much better quality, theoretically. I cant find much user based feedback to verify this though.

I am not trying to solve world hunger here, but I am a proponent of "buy once, cry once" and given the application prep and silicone sealing use, a few bucks more for a better proven unit is worthwhile in my opinion. Not that cleaning everything off and replacing a faulty unit is hard, just a nuisance when there's always 1000 other things to do out here.


Exactly. I don't need to worry about accidentally wiping off markings on any of the numerous oil jugs and then not knowing what is in what. Or, worry about helping hands putting the wrong fluids in the wrong applications. KISS method.

The unit in my 6.2 diesel could give a neutron star a run for its money and the factory Duramax heater that I put in my Gen3 LS 5.3 gasser silverado will heat that iron block V8 engine from 0-80F in just under 2 hours (Its like 1000 watts or something ridiculous). Ill dig back into frost plug specs and try and locate a unit for the C60.

A coleman lantern (Both liquid fuel and propane) would work as a indirect heater. Collectors often use them to both lightup and heat backyard sheds. The vent top would be a shield for the flame and the mantle.

You could also throw a tarp over the front of the truck and use one of those Vevor diesel heaters to blow hot air at the engine. It is similar to how people down in Antarctica warm up the dozer engines so they will start.

I remember while we lived in Akaska that some folks used oil dipstick heaters. Just Google it.

How many watts is a dip stick tube heater?
My block heaters are about 400-500 watts on my old
Trucks and I know I could jam that much down a dip Stick hole but I’m not worried about being compliant to regulatory bodies
I feel like trying to dissipate 500 watts in the tip of a probe that fits down the tube would be challenging or perhaps not a good idea for the contact area available for the heat
So maybe those heaters were less wattage?
An less useful?
But I would like to know
If anyone has specs please post
Thanks
-s

NAPA has Kat's dipstick heaters that are rated at 90 watts. Way less than a block heater inserted into a core plug would be. In real cold weather it would need to be plugged in overnight to do much. My diesel has a 1000W heater in the coolant system, which works in about 3 hours to get up to a reasonable temperature. I agree that sticking 500 watts down a dipstick tube would be a trick and probably not that safe either.

A quick web peek shows "dip stick tube heaters" ranging from 90 - 150 watts currently being offered for sale from various suppliers/sellers. If you want to read/learn more about the topic, type this "engine oil dipstick tube heater" into your web browser search and you will see lots of info from various forums on the good, the bad and in some cases the ugly on the topic.

edit - Kevin beat me to the post button - lol!

I totally forgot about the inline radiator hose heaters. They warm up the waterjacket which in turn would warm up the oil.

I spliced a small (don't remember the wattage) block heater into a heater hose on my gasburner '11 Ram while in NW North Dakota. At 30 and 40 below I had hot air when I'd start it at 4:30 every, morning. My last winter I'd gotten a '14 Ram with Cummins, plugged the block heater in every night and while it'd crank instantly on the coldest morning, it didn't have the instant cabin heat I'd enjoyed the previous years.

RonR

Ron, the difference in mass (weight) between a gas engine and a diesel would account for the lack of immediate cabin heat in the diesel. If the engines are both cold (same temp to start with) the diesel would be at a lower temperature after the same length of time with the heater on, even assuming they were the same wattage. There's just a lot more to heat up in a diesel engine.

Kevin, good point, the Cummins has about twice the mass of a 5.7 Hemi. With the gas burner, the coolent due to thermosyphonig, was getting hot antifreeze to the heater core before starting making a major difference in how quick the cab got warm. Seems sorta trivial, but at -30f, minutes matter!

The factory stock block heater in my 2000 K3500 Detroit 6.5 would warm it fast enough to feel slightly warm air in just a couple of hours after plugging it in. I mostly just planned on when to use the truck and rarely left it plugged in overnight, never failed to start.

Get a 1500 watt tank heater and plum it in at 40 below you can about fry an egg on the hood . I run 15 50 in my truck year round .