Questions on Freeze Plug Engine Block Heater

[KLF]

I wanna ammend my earlier post and say that if I had my engine out and on a stand, and I was going all through it with new freeze plugs, I'd probably put one it "for the heck of it, just in case". They're actualy surprisingly inexpensive from Toyota, like around $25 last I knew.

But to put one in an engine that's installed, nope, wouldn't do that again.

 

[lowenbrau]

I have been looking online at some electric heaters that replace the heater core. Just seems like it would be a real strain on my charging system however its a nice clean sometimes direct replacement for my really worn out,cracked s***ty heating system.

Now that I removed all my ac crap it might be feasable....I dont know. Anybody see any other downfalls of doing this other than the huge drain ?

A good heater core can produce over 10000BTUs

That'd take 3000W of electricity. A 400Amp alternator should do it.

 

[Toyota Kijang]

I wanna ammend my earlier post and say that if I had my engine out and on a stand, and I was going all through it with new freeze plugs, I'd probably put one it "for the heck of it, just in case". They're actualy surprisingly inexpensive from Toyota, like around $25 last I knew.

But to put one in an engine that's installed, nope, wouldn't do that again.

Thanks KLF.

I a kinda knew this would be a PITA to remove the old one and install new one.

Now I just need to come up with 300 buckaroos.

You know what? I am gonna milk my time card hopefully I can cash in some overtimes

 

[Bogo]

Saw a bunch of misinformation on tank heaters, and am not going to read the rest.

Edit: I see the Kat's and Zerostart units are just convection flow.

From google searches I'm seeing a couple expensive pumped units. None like the cheap units I have. Kraft Power looks like it may be the low cost one out there. What happened to the sub $100 pumped ones like I have?

I use large pumped heaters so I can simply plug the truck in 30 minutes to an hour before I wanna go. 30 minutes is all it takes for the 22RE to warm up. Also this saves me $ as it isn't running all night. Bigger engines may take longer, but even 30 minutes really helps allot. I have an extension cord that runs from the driveway to the breezeway. When I get home I plug the truck in to the extension cord. 30 minutes to an hour before I want to go I plug the extension cord into the wall outlet in the breezeway. When I leave I unplug the extension cord from the wall, and truck. It helps to have a hook to loop the extension cord up on so it doesn't vanish under the snow.

For my new tractor, I have a timer as it needs to be turned on 3 hours before I get up. It has the factory freeze plug type engine block and transmission heaters. The other two tractors have pumped tank heaters and only take an hour or so to warm up. I still have timers for them, but usually they don't get used in the winter.

 

[KLF]

Now that I *do* have my engine out and totally apart (freeze plugs removed), I will be investigating this. I'll see if CDan can get me one while I'm ordering my gasket set.

Bogo, that thing is pretty big, where did you mount it? Pics?

 

[Bogo]

I have a pumped tank heater mounted along a frame rail. It is plumbed into a couple of the freeze plugs. Being pumped it doesn't need to be vertical or have the ports on the engine high and low. I'm not sure it would be possible to mount it vertically like a regular convection flow tank heater would need.

Given the lack of currently available low priced pumped tank heaters, see below, I'd likely go with a 400W block heater, and a ?W patch type on the oil pan. I'd also put patches on the transmission and transfer case, but their outsides are likely to convoluted. Patches may work on the differentials. The problem with the patches is they must be perfectly adhered to bare metal or they burn up. I read lots of reports of burned up patches.

Other things I found out. Canada no longer allows dipstick heaters due to fires. Also high intensity heating like they do tends to breakdown the oil faster. Leaving an engine heater on for more than 4 hours is generally pointless as only a couple more degrees can be achieved after that long.

It seams the low end pumped tank heaters have disappeared from the market. I have GM and Watlow units which I can't find any trace of on the net. The GM unit is from back in '94. The other two are about 10 years old. This sucks as what will I do when one fails, or for my 4runner?

I can find a couple high end pumped engine heaters:

Carlor TopStart W With low flow pump.

HOTflow Engine Heaters.

I've also found a China made one but it is 50Hz, not 60Hz:

universal pump-type engine heater dy10l(2) DY10L(for 120V SUPPLY) China ,Others,Others offered by chinese wholesaler