Starting Temp ?

What is the opinion of the guys who know about starting the motor when its cold? Whats the coldest you would start the motor without pre-heating the oil? We run 70 wt with no pre heat and I am concerned about when it is too cold to fire the motor without doing harm. We are not planning on making a run just starting it up. Thanks in advance.

 

If it is colder than 65 degrees outside, and the car has been in the trailer overnight, I will heat up a pail of oil in the truck so it doesnt twist off the pump drive.

 

I have two morose in pan heaters, they will raise the temp appox 50 deg in 30 min. On 16 qts of 60 wt.

 

We ALWAYS pre-heat the oil , and keep the heater on between rounds too.

 

Thanks guys. I think I will try the in tank moroso unit.
Jody you said you have two, is that just so you can heat it faster?

 

Yes, I'd like to add a third, one for each section of my baffeled oil pan.

 

Check these ones as well, I have one - works fine. They have quite a range of sizes
http://www.wolverineheater.com/

Pete

 

I looked at those and my thought was that with the external heater dont you loose some of the heating to the outside air. Meaning they are much less efficient?

 

The "stick on" heaters will burn the abosorbant pads in the diaper. You do use a diaper right?
I use a "in the pan" heater from Stephs. Installs with a weld on bung.
I run 50wt. and ALWAYS pre heat
Steve

 

Yes I did have this happen but I just put a sheet of heat blanket material in the bottom of the diaper problem solved... I agree that the in sump unit is probably better but the stick on ones are a quick and easy solution. Even if you had to drop one side of the diaper the one I have still makes plenty of heat. With the diaper on the whole pan warm up and the heat rises through the block enough to feel the warmth by hand

Pete

 

After burning up multiple stick on heaters we went to weld in and all 3 of them are still working just fine. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but I tried my best...

 

Has anyone come up with a simple thermostatic switch to turn the in tank on and off. Just trying to think ahead in case it is left on too long.
32bantam no we dont have a diaper we have a catch pan.

 

I ran a stick on heater , it was on a BBC single Domiator 540. We found that if you use silicone around the edge of the pad after it has been stuck on , it stays put. It was very effective too.

Cheers Wayne

 

I don't use a thermostat at all and have left them on for hours without any ill effects that I've noticed, maybe mine have internal thermostats

 

I run a Peterson oil tank heater in my dry sump tank (it is a 300 watt unit). I always preheat my oil before starting it. I usually preheat it to 150 to 160 degrees, fire the engine and build some heat in the engine (this will drop the oil down to 115 degrees or so due to the gallon or so of oil that is in my oil pan (beyond the 3.5 gallons in my dry sump tank) and then I will try to plug the heater back in again before heading to the track before our run. I would say on average I only gain 10 degrees of heat from the start of a run to the end of a run (if I leave the starting line at 110 degrees it will be 120 degrees at the end of the run).

I have left my oil heater plugged in for 5-6 hours at a time and the oil will get up to 170 to 180 degrees. At about 160 degrees the alcohol will begin to evaporate from the oil.

 

Pretty much what we do , it makes all the difference.

Think of an Olympic athlete not being warmed up before an event......that's why the oil and motor should be good to go when needed

Wayne