Charcoal to heat your engine or?
 

In one of the threads a member ask about using charcoal to heat his engine as a cold starting aid. But than I saw this site in another thread:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JetBoil-Fast-Camping-Cooker-Stove-Survival-Bushcraft_W0QQitemZ170187706091QQihZ007QQcategoryZ16036QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I am posting this as a joke but I bet someone can do it.

I could imagine if you used a heat exchanger you could get a hot engine and hot heater core right away, if you used the aux water pump to pump from the heat exchanger. It uses alot of power to heat up 600lb's of steel, so youd suck those little cans right up.

Even then that only heats the oil. It won't do anything to heat the coolant or the combustion chamber.

I cannot honestly say I would concider using charcoal, That just sounds like an accident waiting to happen.
When I lived up north though, and had my suburban 6.2, I would use a 500w shop light and slide it under the oil pan. It seem to work rather well.

Its a common method used by truckers in extremely cold northern India. In remote areas of Leh, Ladakh and Siachen as well as Kashmir, temps dip to -40C and there is no place to put your block heater. Charcoal is used in containers to heat up the sump. It works but long term the seals and sump suffer. Heated oil helps transfer some heat to the combustion chamber which probably makes those vehicles start.

At -40 you don't shut off the engine unless you're staying home until the spring :)

Sixto
87 300D

I've heard that they do that in places like Alaska. That's rough when diesel is going for $3.60 a gallon!

That's what it costs around SJC.

Sixto
87 300D

With some quick disconnects and plumbing fittings, I bet a guy could tie one of these into the cooling system and fire it up in cold temperatures. Keep it in the trunk until it gets cold, connect it up, heat up the coolant. I wonder how long it would take to get the coolant to the same temperature as an electic block heater reaches?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Coleman-Hot-Water-On-Demand-Portable-Water-Heater_W0QQitemZ190189201767QQihZ009QQcategoryZ16039QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQtrksidZp1638.m118.l1247 QQcmdZViewItem

Cheaper than a Webasto and you could still use it on camping trips.

If its -40 then I'd be installing/using alternative methods to help start my engine. Perhaps a heated oil/prelube system to circulate the oil, ad well as a powered coolant heating/circulating system.

Yeah...my dad worked in Alaska in the 70's as a geologist researching gold deposits. He said that they did that all the time in the winter, just let the vehicles and other diesel equipment run 24/7. But of course that's back when diesel was dirt cheap.

Ol timey bed warmer
 

I could imagine it working rather well, actually

Y'all ever seen an old timey bed warmer? These things look like a frying pan with a lid and long handles. Back when, people put coals in them, shut the lid, and put the thing UNDER THE BEDCOVERS...

wait, here's a link
http://www.oldandinteresting.com/bed-warmers.aspx

Yes, several months a go some one posted a site that had propane powered block heaters but they were expensive above $1000 each. More for a Big Rig or for someone who could deduct it as a business expense. This is a lot less expensive. With any sort of heater it must talk alot of energy and time to get the coolent warm.

Here's a stripped down version. I wonder if a person could use the existing auxilliary pump to move the coolant through the heater? The plastic 'T's for flushing the system would probably adapt it nicely since they say they offer a water hose adaptor for it.

http://www.hotcampshowers.com/79065_Hot_Tap_EP_external_power.html

Plug this baby into your cooling system and you'd have the engine up to temperature in about 20 minutes:

http://www.zodi.com/web-content/Consumer/zodix40shower.html



Would the coolant move by convection throughout the motor without the pump once the heater was fired up? (probably would need to put the heater as the low point in the system) When I bought my house it had a gravity hot water radiator system where the water circulated from the basement boiler by convection.