Oil heater question

[CharleyH]

Anyone using oil heaters to shorten warm up time? My Radical SR3 has the hot weather high capacity cooling and Because of the great cooling capacity of these cars I have to run it for quite a while to get the oil up to temperature. Would an oil heater help much? Anyone have experience using one? Any recommendations?

Charley

[Charles Warner]

Oil-Water heat exchanger. Block off some of the cooling.

[Rick Kirchner]

the problem with oil heaters @ the track is that with 115V you are pretty much limited to 1500 W. That in itself is no problem if you have a large enough tank to put in a very long element folded to whatever shape is required. But if your tank won't accommodate a long element, and you have no way of circulating the oil, the energy density at the element will be so high as to coke the oil (even synthetics).

for heating systems, it's pretty hard to beat the ones C&R sells (but big $$$$)

[ljabouri]

I had an SR3-RS, and would definitely vouch for the effectiveness of an oil heater.
As you're discovering, without an oil heater it takes forever to get the temps close to what they need to be. Plus, the engine is much happier getting started on warm oil and not having to idle for a long, long time.
The downside is that unless you're near an electrical outlet, you'll need a generator.
The upside is you'll have a nice and short engine warm up time.
My Radical had a 400W heater pad wrapped around the oil tank.

[CharleyH]

Oil-Water heat exchanger. Block off some of the cooling.

I do block off about one third of the oil and water radiators so the car will operate in the appropriate temperature range. I am looking for a way to get the engine up to operating temperatures. The engine needs to be overhauled every 40 hours, so I don't want to use a lot of time to just warm up the engine.

the problem with oil heaters @ the track is that with 115V you are pretty much limited to 1500 W. That in itself is no problem if you have a large enough tank to put in a very long element folded to whatever shape is required. But if your tank won't accommodate a long element, and you have no way of circulating the oil, the energy density at the element will be so high as to coke the oil (even synthetics).

for heating systems, it's pretty hard to beat the ones C&R sells (but big $$$$)

I have been looking at several options that are between 250 and 500 watts that can be attached to the block or oil sump.

I had an SR3-RS, and would definitely vouch for the effectiveness of an oil heater.
As you're discovering, without an oil heater it takes forever to get the temps close to what they need to be. Plus, the engine is much happier getting started on warm oil and not having to idle for a long, long time.
The downside is that unless you're near an electrical outlet, you'll need a generator.
The upside is you'll have a nice and short engine warm up time.
My Radical had a 400W heater pad wrapped around the oil tank.

Perfect thanks. How long did you run the heater before starting the engine? I have been thinking about the best way to power the heater. One option is to use an 12v to 120v inverter in my trailer.... I have thick wiring that runs from my tow vehicle battery to the trailer to run my winch so I could tap into that. But I am not sure my battery and alternator can keep up with the inverter draw. The other option I have been looking at is using a 12v 225w heater that I could run from my winch wiring.... But I am not sure if this will provide enough heat. What are your thoughts?

Thanks for the help,
Charley

[dereklola]

Heat exchanger Charles recommended - see pic - with these you do not use conventional oil cooler. After starting a cold engine the water heats up faster than oil and heat exchanger simply uses this water heat to warm the oil. Very effective. Also somewhat balances oil and water temps when on track. In theory you may need larger water radiator but try just removing some blanking first.

10-15 minutes should be fine - but crank up the idle speed to, say, 2000 rpm for this.

Oil heating pads or sticks tend to be low wattage so they are fine to leave on for 45 minutes before starting but that really needs 115V mains supply.

re 40 hour engine maintenance - no need to count warm up minutes/hours- just count track hours. Some peope recommend track miles - I prefer hours - engine doesn't know MPH.

[ljabouri]

Here's an example of the heater pad that I'm talking about :

http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS-Performan...23671/10002/-1

You simply tie wrap it onto the oil tank. I had the wire routed to the back of the car, so that I could plug it in without removing the engine cover.

Depending on the outside temp, 30-45 minutes was enough to get the oil temp close to 60C.

I had considered running an inverter from my truck, but never bothered as I have a small, quiet generator. I didn't want to risk killing my truck battery!

[Dee]

We use a Tanis strip (made for aircraft) it will heat your oil in 10 mins.

[Charles Warner]

We use a Tanis strip (made for aircraft) it will heat your oil in 10 mins.

http://www.tanisaircraft.com/tb02800-31-3-115-1.html

versus

https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/pr...asp?RecID=1268

Lemme see. $700 versus $60?

One issue to be considered is that it doesn't really matter how quickly the oil is heated. If the cooling system is such that it drops the oil temp once the car gets moving you have wasted the wattage. The heat exchangers work quickly, efficiently and constantly. Some cars do not run an oil cooler and rely on the water system to regulate the oil temp.

That said, the oil tank strips are good to pre-heat the oil to be nicer to the bearings on startup if your oil system is plumbed properly.

[ReynardF1000]

Ideally you should circulate both the engine cooling liquid and lube oil in a preheat application. If you heat one and not the other, the one not heated will cool the heated liquid when the engine starts, but it's better than no heat!
A hybrid might work okay. Heat and circulate the coolant and heat the oil in the tank. The silicone rubber heater (SRH) adhered to the oil tank is the least costly and potentially destructive approach.
You could build a coolant circulation system with inline heater, using a water heater element and electric water pump. You'll want to use all the available amperage if you use 120V supply voltage. Usually, 15A is what's available. If the pump requires ~3A, you'll have ~12A to power the heater. Wattage will be; 120 * 12 = 1,440W. This much wattage will heat a smallish engine from ~70F to 160F in about 20-30 minutes, much slower from colder ambient temperature.
BTW, the TANIS product is a low power unit for heating batteries on aircraft. The price reflects the likely FAA certification requirement for most aircraft products.
BTW2, I've built numerous coolant, lubrication and tire heater systems. Fun projects, all!