Engine block heating systems and other cold weather starting aids

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

In AD7-211 Harald van Santen in the Netherlands asks about a "good but cheap
(I know, contradiction) engine block heating system" for a projected Christmas
holiday trip to Sweden, where he says temperatures are expected to drop very
far.

Northern North America can get quite cool in the winter, temperatures
appreciably below zero (F) being not exceptional, and the Alfas of the fifties
and sixties were not designed as arctic cars, so these problems were discussed
in club newsletters.

There are at least three broadly distinct cold-weather factors affecting
winter starting. One is the general temperature of those parts of the engine
which are affected by coolant temperature, which can be helped by an engine
block heating system, but the water-jacketed parts are far from the whole
problem. A second, untouched by the engine block heater, is the battery. At 0
degrees F The output of the battery at low rates of discharge is only about
half the value at 80 degrees, and the output is even less at high rates of
discharge, as when turning the starter motor, when there may be little left
for the ignition. A third, much improved in recent years but still a factor,
is the oil. Forty years ago Alfa had not yet started specifying multigrade
oils, but even today the lightest multigrades are probably more of a drag on
starting at really cold temperature than when warm.

On the battery question, a friend who ran a Mercedes in the fifties in Chicago
simply plugged in a battery charger for dead-cold starts; the coil got its
ration, the starter motor turned quicker and longer, and he was running.

In the early sixties an AROC member in the north-eastern USA wrote the Club
newsletter recommending a "General Electric engine heater that fits inside the
lower radiator hose. At 400 watts, it will circulate and warm the block before
starting is attempted. Price is $4.50 from J. C. Whitney & Co., 1917-19 Archer
Ave., Chicago 16, Ill., stock #54355." Paul Tenney, in the even colder upper
midwest, added "(Editor's note: Personally - -'58 Super Spider - - we wouldn't
think of being without one in an unheated garage. A gorgeously, magically
efficient and effective device.)"  

More than twenty years later (note the price inflation- ) that was still a
staple; another contributor wrote "The solution to consistent cold weather
starting that has worked for me ever since my first Alfa (a '57 Giulietta
Spider) is both simple and inexpensive. I send off to J.C. Whitney for an
engine heater that installs in the lower radiator hose, and I use a timer to
control how long the heater will be energized each night. The heater sells for
around $l5.00, and installs in minutes. All you do is cut a small piece from
the lower hose, insert the heater, and tighten the clamps. Although the
Whitney catalog does not list the heater for Alfas, I have found that the
applications for Mercedes or Volvo fit fine. The only requirement is that the
lower hose slant upward to the engine block so that the heated water can
circulate by convection through the engine. (I believe all Alfas are laid out
this way). Of course you also have to have a 110 volt outlet handy so that you
can plug the timer in.

"Once the heater is installed, the idea is to have the timer turn it on
anywhere from an hour to eight hours before starting, depending on the
temperature. On below zero nights I like to turn it on about midnight and let
it stay on until I come out in the morning to start the car. For the warmer
nights, when the temperature is only slightly below freezing, I set the timer
to turn on the heater at about 6:00 am so that it runs about 2 hours before
starting. One word of caution don't start the car and drive away with  the
heater still plugged into the timer. I know it sounds ridiculous but I can
assure you that it happens." 

But cars have improved, and the global climate is warming. That heater is
apparently no longer listed in the J.C. Whitney catalog, and not being in
Whitney does not bode well. Perhaps the Volvo suggestion still holds in
Scandinavia?

The late Herb Bridge, an M.I.T professor who in the sixties drove a Giulia
Super in frigid New England did use the resistance heater in the lower
radiator hose on his later cars, but in the less affluent sixties his
"standard pre-heating method used to be a 100 watt light bulb under the hood
near the intake manifold and a blanket on the hood. Depending on the weather
forecast this could be augmented with a 500 watt heater under the oil pan.
These heaters were turned on by a timer three or four hours before it was time
to start the car and worked well down to -20 degrees F- a little primitive,
perhaps, but it worked."

Another inexpensive variant widely recommended by Norwegian bachelor farmers
in the upper midwest was an electric light bulb (which is relatively
inefficient as a light source, radiating much heat) in a tin can under the oil
pan. Very easy to cobble together, it may have done little to keep the coolant
warm but it did keep the oil liquid, and probably raised the ambient
temperature under the hood a bit. Again, that may be less of an issue with
modern oils. There were many improvised variants, like insulated boxes sized
to fit snugly below a major part of the pan, but the basic merit is that a
bulb, a socket, an extension cord and perhaps a timer, plus perhaps the
insulating blanket for the second underhood bulb which would warm the battery
as well as the engine, are relatively inexpensive and widely available, and
may be appropriate for the occasional user.

Enjoy the trip-

John H. 

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