Oil Pan or Engine Heater

[NRPETERSEN]

Maybe a pad heater mounted on a say 1/8 inch thick aluminum plate which in turn is RTV'd to the bottom of the ribbed pan casting. Some sort of foam/shiny insulation in the bottom side of the whole mess would be very desirable to minimize radiant heat loss if it didn't project down too far & get into the road crap. Use lots of RTV (lay it down down in separate lines for each rib) & try to get attachment to each fin since RTV really isn't a very good heat conductor. This would probably work for say 150 watts or so.

Yes - definitely synthetic oil but you already are doing that.

[donbmw]

http://www.reiffpreheat.com/product.htm

The link above is for aircraft engine perheaters. They have pad oil sump heater that are bonded by using J B Weld. And cylinder band clamp heater that may work. We have a set on one of our aircraft and when used it is almost to hot to touch in a few hours.

[ScienceOfDirt]

I've not tried it on my motorcycle, but a cheap electric blanket wrapped around my boat engine lets me waterski until the lake ices. I would think one for a twin bed wrapped around the engine would be enough.

[richardak]

http://www.reiffpreheat.com/product.htm

The link above is for aircraft engine perheaters. They have pad oil sump heater that are bonded by using J B Weld. And cylinder band clamp heater that may work. We have a set on one of our aircraft and when used it is almost to hot to touch in a few hours.

Interesting site. I didn't even know these things existed. The band heaters are a method of heating an air cooled engine that I had never thought of before.

For now, I just ordered a couple of relatively small silicone pads. One 25 watts and one 50 watts. I'll experiment a bit to see how things may fit. I'm thinking that the 25 watt heater may be perfect to keep the battery warm and the larger one mounted to a plate which I'll try and clamp to the pan or something...

Thank you for the suggestions...

[71243]

Thank you for all the comments and suggestions. I have used a lot of the silicon pad heaters over the years on a variety of vehicles.

To answer some the the other questions.



"Free" in that there is no additional charge to plug in but there is an annual parking fee and electricity usage is included.



I am running 5w40 oil at these temperatures to ensure that there is oil flow even after starting. The engine heads and cylinders are to warm to touch after even a few miles of riding so I suspect that it is getting up to operating temperature even with the cold air temperatures. The efficiency of the heat transfer from engine to air would be a function of the temperature difference and an additional 40 degrees colder isn't that much compared to the temperature of the cylinder and heads.

Studded tires are legal and with studs in the front and rear bike tires, handling starting and stopping are just fine. 1WD is more than sufficient through several inches of snow. The softer rubber of the trials tire also helps on the slicker roads.



Every space at my work has a separate 15 amp breaker but they will ticket you if it looks like you have an interior heater (melted snow on the windows) as it is against the parking regs due to electricity consumption. As noted above I am using light oil and the engine does start almost immediately though the starter gets very sluggish. I'm thinking that 30 years of grime needs to be cleaned out of the starter.



With heated gear and the barn door faring and windshield, I'm warmer upon arrival than if I taken the bus.

What I'm thinking of doing is getting an aluminum plate and sticking on a ~100 watt silicon heat pad to and mechanically fastening it to the fins of the oil pan. There are only a couple of quarts of oil there so there may be more than enough heat transfer to keep the oil warm. My truck engine holds 12 quarts of oil and uses a 70w silicone pad but has better conductivity between the pad and the pan. Even at -40 the oil in the pan is pretty warm.

Thank you again for the suggestions!

I rode in "cold" before I retired, but any more it just goes to my bones. And I don't have the 'barn-door' fairing any longer either......so when it's "cold" I stay home..

[richardak]

I rode in "cold" before I retired, but any more it just goes to my bones. And I don't have the 'barn-door' fairing any longer either......so when it's "cold" I stay home..

I keep wondering why I don't retire. The retirement folks keep sending me letters asking my why I hadn't...

One of these years.