Cold Weather pre heating in North America

[plythall]

Hi all. Im looking into getting a preheater just to keep things warmed up when the mercury drops as it did this week to -28C. I have looked at the Wabasco solution available in Europe. Unfortunately none of the Wabasco dealers in Canada are able to source this as a solution. And its pretty spendy for my purposes. I would like to plug the vehicle in, keep the engine warmer, keep the batteries topped up and occasionally keep the cabin warm. I may look at the webasto later as it would ideal to have the option of warming the vehicle when out at the ski hill etc.

I have looked at some generic pad type heaters however the BMW Engine, I have the gas variant as the diesel isnt available in NA, have a "busy block/oil pan" and there isnt much of a clean flat surface to mount the oil pan heater to that I can see. Im sure I can sort out something if I cant figure out a more specific solution.

I have looked at the DEFA product, they list a diesel version of thier heater but they dont list a version of the gas engine. They do however how a number of BMW B58 engines for various BMW vehicles and they have said they have several kits that may fit depending on how the engine is configured. The Canadian office has ben pretty responsive but they just dont have a Ineos specific solution.

Has anyone else sorted this out and what solution did you end up using. Not intending to reinvent a solution rather copy something that is working for others.

Peter

 

[anand]

One of the Grenadiers that did the Alcan 5000 this past winter (the team that was provided a Grenadier by Ineos, not the privateer team from TX), had an oil pan heater installed, but stated that they never used it.

Perhaps some of the Northern climate Europeans have a more helpful answer

 

[parb]

I can email the swedish defa engineers and ask. At least on the swedish site they have a ineos diesel version listed, can't be that hard for them to list a gas version.
I really like the defa gear, its a shame its not sold in the US. My brother (who lives in the mountains in utah) ordered his from canada. We are both from sweden originally and we used the defa heaters back in the the cold country... as cold as it gets up in northern sweden i think its required to have both a block and a cabin heater. The defa cabin heater is awesome.

 

[parb]

i sent a message to the engineers in sweden. lets see what they come back with.
I really dig the defa stuff, i think i may add the battery and cabin heater to my grenadier.

 

[Pete Brown]

This is the kind of heater we need, a frost plug block heater, if we can find one that fits a B58 installed in a Grenadier. It’s quite possible one is made for the B58 in a BMW but I have no located one yet.

Bear in mind that there are at least 2 problems with a cold start.

1) Getting it started at all. Mine has been pretty good so far down to 0°F. A good battery and functioning charging system helps.

2)Preheating the oil and block reduces engine wear associated with cold starts, even with the newer lower viscosity synthetic oils.

Oil Immersion Heaters

phillipsandtemro.com

 

[parb]

agreed. I have only had the kind of block heaters that installs through a frost plug. works great.
The new contact heaters are completely foreign to me.
I also believe (without having any scientific knowledge) that the more modern engines and their higher quality engine oils have improved cold weather performance tremendously, but i agree that anything that reduces wear from cold starts is a great idea. Probably won't affect me a ton where i live, but certainly is great to have when i visit family in utah.

 

[Pete Brown]

The BMW 340i uses the B58. Whether this can be safely installed in a Grenadier is another issue. Depending on the location and orientation of the B58 freeze plug, installing it may lower clearance or create a vulnerability on the bottom of the engine. It’s certainly worth looking at.

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/kat-s-freeze-plug-heater-11431/11124673-P?vehicleIdSearch=1845212&isAllVehicle=false

 

[parb]

I looked at the product library on the swedish web site. The 440 also has a B58 engine and it looks like it connects the heater to a plug located next to the alternator near on of the top pulleys.
It says you need to drain the coolant so i assume this installs and heats the coolant rather than the oil? Then again if its immersed in coolant, that should radiate and heat up the entire block -especially an aluminium block.

 

[anand]

I looked at the product library on the swedish web site. The 440 also has a B58 engine and it looks like it connects the heater to a plug located next to the alternator near on of the top pulleys.
It says you need to drain the coolant so i assume this installs and heats the coolant rather than the oil? Then again if its immersed in coolant, that should radiate and heat up the entire block -especially an aluminium block.

Correct, it's in coolant not oil as it takes the place of a freeze plug in the block

 

[plythall]

Hi All, I have been in contact with DEFA Canada, they have been very responsive and have offered a number of potential but not verified B58 engine heaters. Unfortunately, our variant with the transmission and different oil pan doesnt allow for any of the ones they offered to fit properly. I really like how thiers are contoured to fit the oil pan.

After reading through the DEFA info I think I will use the DEFA interior heater, battery tender and adapt thier cable to a Polar Pad that can stick directly onto the bottom of the oil pan. I would prefer the DEFA heater as it looks to be very well built and more custom than simply gluing on a pad.

We typically have a cord hanging out of the hood and plug an extension cable in. The DEFA plug looks pretty sharp.

A webasto dealer in the UK that I have ordered parts from in the past has sent me the instructions for installation for the bespoke webasto solution however they cautioned me that its a 11 hour install and requires access to the dealer portal to download some software to install on the control module... Perhaps its possible to have this module pre programmed and sent so I can install. I'm not scared of a 11 hour install but I am scared to install and not be able to get the software installed because the north American dealers cant download the software.

 

[parb]

the swedish guys just told me that anything 110v is done by the north american engineers. they have not tested the gas model in europe either.