94 850 turbo block heater

[Ozark Lee]

BEJinFBK has a block heater advantage. The last time I was in Fairbanks I was surprised to see pay parking meters in the lot at Sears, and then I noticed the power outlet that gets turned on with your quarters.

...Lee

[BEJinFbk]

There are plenty of ways to heat an engine with electricity.
Circulating heaters, freeze plug heaters and many newer cars
use specialized OEM spec elements that thread into the block
and heat the coolant that way. All of those help a great deal.

Since the I5 isn't like all of the other kids in the parking lot,
Volvo came up with the OEM element referred to by the OP that
bolts to the back of the block. It seems to work pretty well, but
I agree that keeping the oil warm is critically important in cold
weather. Silicone oil pan heaters are installed on pretty much
all of the rigs around here. Usually rated at 75-100 watts.

As for the battery, the favorite in Fairbanks is using a small maintanence
charger. Blankets and plates have been pretty much replaced by them.
A well charged battery should never freeze.

I never noticed any meters at Sears. Must be for the employees.
That is really low budget. I've never had an employer here
that charged for plugging in. Just seems wrong!

I wonder how much they get for the coffee in the break room?

[erikv11]

I was curious to see some actual numbers with a block heater. So FYI here is one data point, from today:

Before startup:
-8.8 ˚C Outside temperature (this is 16 F)
-7.7 ˚C Temp on dash display (this is 18 F)
24 ˚C Temp at ECT (! this is 75 F)

So that is a huge difference, actually more than I expected. This is for a car parked outside (in the driveway), using the OEM Volvo block heater (500 W).

To give you a general idea: when I went out I popped the hood and touched the cam cover, it was lukewarm to the touch, warmer at the back side than the front (the little block heater mounts on back side of engine, near the firewall). I started the engine, waited a minute for my reader to re-establish the OBD connection, and at that instant the temp at the ECT was 30 C (that's 86 F). So the temp climbs right up, too.

The heater was plugged in from 11 PM until 7 AM when I took the readings. I haven't messed around with a timer. It costs about $0.60 to run it for 8 hours. I have been using it when the temps are below 20 F.

I will probably check again when the weather gets colder, and try to grab a few data points over the winter.

[abscate]

And as an exercise for the brain...

I SWAG the specific heat capacity of engine coolant at 3.3 J/g/C
and the density of 50-50 coolant approximately 1.1g/cc

and thus raising the temperature of your 7 liters ??) or 8000g of coolant by 32 degrees C took

8E3g*32C*3.3J/g/C or a total of 844kJ
and your block heater rated at 500 watts used a total of 14,400 Joules.

Im guessing the engine block soaks up most of the heat

[erikv11]

Is that exercise or exorcise?

I was scratching my head for a second there ... that would be 14,400 kJ!

Cool, the math underlines how the heat goes into the block (as expected, it's a block heater!), where it transfers to all in the block, including coolant, and a lot is dissipated into the surrounding air no doubt ...

At startup the oil will almost instantly come up to block temps, with a block-only heater the one hurdle at startup is getting the cold oil to circulate on its first pass (synthetic oil, anyone?).

[abscate]

The eunichs are left for the student.

kJ indeed.