Engine Preheating

[gevertex]

Hey all,

   I wanted to share my engine pre-heat solution with everyone. I use one of those diesel heaters many others use, and I typically hook this up to my car via the 12v port in the center console. However, recently a deer hit my wife while she was driving (her words ), and we are down one car. As a good husband, I let her drive mine anytime she needs it. As a result, I have been taking an Uber to the airport to fly in the mornings lately. So I needed a 12v source for my heater. I have seen many use smaller motorcycle or generator sized 12v batteries, but I don't have an easy way to charge one of those. I do have 18v and 40v Ryobi batteries that I use for my tools / yard equipment, and chargers for those batteries.

To fix this, I bought a buck converter and a battery adapter (it's basically a breakout for the battery's power pins) to step down the 40v battery to 12v. I tried it this morning and it works really well. I still need to terminate it properly, but now I have a 12v source I can use for anything that is powered by the 5 or so 40v batteries I have laying around. I bet you could do the same thing with 18v tool batteries to step them down to 12v. Depending on the voltage range of the heater it might just accept the 18v battery with no step down.

 

Links
Breakout: https://www.amazon.com/Laimiao-Adapter-Terminal-Convertor-Robotics/dp/B0CDGQWJ7B

Buck Converter: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0756T983Q

 

[AJ88V]

I once made a propane powered heater out of a small camp stove, but now that I have a hangar with power, wondering if it might just be enough to stick a 750 watt hair dryer into one of the cowl flaps.  Anybody do this?

[toto]

5 minutes ago, AJ88V said:

I once made a propane powered heater out of a small camp stove, but now that I have a hangar with power, wondering if it might just be enough to stick a 750 watt hair dryer into one of the cowl flaps.  Anybody do this?

The simplest solution I've seen is to throw a blanket over the cowl and put a 100w incandescent light bulb up the cowl flap.  The bulb puts out quite a lot of heat, but probably less dangerous than a hair dryer (I'm thinking the heating element of the hair dryer is probably too hot to have near combustible stuff in an enclosed area).

[Jim F]

2 minutes ago, toto said:

The simplest solution I've seen is to throw a blanket over the cowl and put a 100w incandescent light bulb up the cowl flap.  The bulb puts out quite a lot of heat, but probably less dangerous than a hair dryer (I'm thinking the heating element of the hair dryer is probably too hot to have near combustible stuff in an enclosed area).

This is what I do, and I agree that it seems to be the simplest.  I made a foil lines bobble wrap cover for the cowl and I stuff the trouble light with an 100W incandescent bulb in the pilot's cowl flap.  When i turn on the JPI all cylinders are ~60dF. 

If I am on the road or I got stuck out in the cold I swing buy a hardware store and buy a 3inch flexible dryer duct and stuff it in the cowl flap and the rental car exhaust.  In 20min  the entire engine is warmed up.

[Vance Harral]

We did the light bulb thing for a while, but ultimately decided jamming a glass bulb in the engine compartment (even with the protection of a trouble light cage) skeeved us out.  Now we put a small electric space heater under the cowl and direct the airflow up the cowl flap.  It's not fast, but it's better than the light bulb, and seems less risky.

[BDPetersen]

Pad heater. 

[toto]

For whatever it’s worth, I use a Hornet heater from these guys:

https://www.aircraftheaters.com/