|
|
|
#1
|
|||
|
|||
plug block heater into another car?
has anyone plugged their block heater into another running car before?
i'm just getting ready for a short road trip, and let's say you're out in the woods and your diesel doesn't start in the morning, and your friend has an ac adapter in their cigarette lighter... would that work??? thanks |
#2
|
||||
|
||||
Anything that creates heat takes a LOT of juice.
I don't know the numbers but the old block heater on my ford idi would get the extension cord hot and that's how I'd know its working(aside from hearing the fluid flowing) The cheesy little alternators on our old benz's can barely power a little electric heater. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
right,
the other car would be a modern toyota, not another old benz... i wonder if you'd have more luck plugging jumper cables from car to car, to try to glow plug multiple times without killing the car battery. also, the roll start, or tow start, option, as explained in the user manual of an automatic transmission 300D..? |
#4
|
||||
|
||||
900watts IIRC, which with an 80% efficient inverter would translate to roughly 90amps @ 12vdc, not going to pull that through a cig-lighter socket, especially in a newer car which is pretty much USB current designed.
Could potentially do it through heavy jumper-cables to a large inverter (900watts continuous is a large inverter also, and decent "modified sine wave" will cost you, crappy square-wave will work however). I have my block heater on a timer in the garage, so that it comes on three hours before I leave for the office when I drive the car, heats it up nicely from ~40F in the garage to ~120F to start warm, so a rough estimate would be no more than 30F per hour, a long time to wait. I had to store Belle outside a couple of winters ago, it got down to -18F on a Saturday morning so I decided to see how she started (without the block-heater as it was simply "stored" for the winter). It took longer for the glowplug light to turn off so I could start (maybe 45seconds? Maybe longer), but it then started on about the 3rd compression which is fairly normal, and with afterglow it idled well (until afterglow went off, not much heat at idle). If your engine has good compression, good synthetic oil, good battery, good starter, good timing and valve-lash, good glow plugs, basically is in good shape it will start well at those temperatures. A better option out in the woods would be a small heat source that you could direct in the intake (like a modern diesel's intake heater).
__________________
Gone to the dark side - Jeff Last edited by babymog; 11-07-2015 at 09:24 AM. Reason: Oh yeah, and GOOD GLOW PLUGS!!! |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
The most a typical 120 Volt plug in block heater is going to be is 1,500 W ( 12.5 Amps )
So, if you are running this from a 12 V nominal source through an inverter to get 120 V , you will need 120 Amps of 12V power not counting conversion losses. ( Watts = Volts * Amps , cars run at high 13 V / low 14V but I'll ignore that part ) Any built in 120V source won't be able to push 1,500 W, these are usually intended for 200W loads. You would need to have the power supply car running at elevated idle to assure the alternator can keep up and few if any car alternators are able to put out that high off a power continuously. The choices are, making sure the engine is in top shape, a battery warmer, intake air heater or take another car. |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
I did something similar to this when I lived in NY.
it stays about -300 degrees up there most of the year if I remember properly. I have a 1750w Xantrex modified sine inverter (yard sale for a few bucks, fan broken and ground wire cooked, easy fix) I connected my jumper cables to the inverter and the block heater to the inverter. let it sit for about an hour, enough to warm the engine up above 0f at least, then she fired right up. the inverter showed about 1/2 capacity while the block heater was plugged in, which fits pretty well in line with 900-1000w estimates.
__________________
1982 300D (w123, "Grey Car") 1982 300D (w123, "Blue Car") 2001 Ford F150 "Clifford" (The Big Red Truck) 1997 Dodge Ram 2500 12V Cummins 1996 Dodge Ram 2500 12V Cummins Previous Vehicles: 1995 E300D, 1980 300SD, 1992 Buick Century, 2005 Saturn Ion |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
A 900 W / 12 V load for one hour is 75 Amp Hours. ( 900 / 12 = 75 amps * 1 hour run time = 75 Ah. )
We would need to know the Ah rating of your battery and the amount of power it takes to crank the engine. I'd think that the above it perilously close to fully discharging the battery during cranking. |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
If this car refuses to start.....I would highly doubt it is because the block heater wasn't plugged in....
If it is extremely cold out, simply let the plugs glow 2-3 times....And then turn the key to start, and now let that sucker crank until it is running on its own...full throttle too....The manual even states this....starter is designed to crank for over a min.... But this only works "if" you have good battery cables, recommend 2 gauge and a good starter.....recommend replacing with a turbo starter too...
__________________
|
#9
|
||||
|
||||
Didn't you ask about this in a thread before? Everyone already gave you answers. Your best bet (as I said in your other thread) is to buy a small generator to run the block heater. New ones are nice and quitet too. A spare battery and jumper cables can help to elongate cranking and start a tired engine.
Again all of this was discussed. I would be leery running a block heater off of another car, that's a lot of juice and I would be afraid if cooking something. |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
A more direct route to warming a 2nd engine would be a set of hoses with sealing quick connect fittings tapped into the cooling system between the two cars. You might even be able to use an existing aux heater water pump with some creative piping.
|
#11
|
|||
|
|||
Coming to a Walmart lot soon. Hey buddy my car won't start. Would you happen to have quick disconnect hoses, and jumper cables that I could use off of your car to get mine going.
|
#12
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
I get this call from time to time, when I "think" I fixed the evil servo....Car's dead....Lights go dim....Wait a co worker gave me a jump
__________________
|
#13
|
||||
|
||||
anybody ever try a hot air gun?
__________________
1993 MB 300D 245K died. |
#14
|
||||
|
||||
... if only we had the webasto heaters that the German market cars have.
__________________
Gone to the dark side - Jeff |
#15
|
||||
|
||||
What kind of block heaters do you all have that are 900+ watts?
The block heater (factory) on my OM601 draws about ~350 watts according to a Kill-A-Watt meter. I imagine most older factory MB block heaters are under 500 watts....and thus could be pretty easily run with a decent inverter connected to a running car....most modern cars have pretty beefy size alternators to run all the gadget systems. Years back I ran a fridge, laptop/modem/firewall, and a few CFL lights off my 300SD for several hours during an outage, even at a high idle the voltage in the car stayed around 12.8 to 13.2 volts or so....no issue with battery discharging....and that was a good 400-500 watts with everything going.
__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life- '15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800) '17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k) '09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k) '13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k) '01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km) '16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k) |
Bookmarks |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|