Block heater, oil or water

What are you guy;s using ?

My Son bought his from Jegs and pretty sure he only has one going into a soft plug hole. Later in the year when we run the Halloween races in PA and Ohio he loves them. It saves him a lot of alcohol.

I have the World block with screw in plugs, does anyone make screw in heaters?

Not sure about the screw in but I would give Jegs a call

I don't have either but all the bucks up racers I know that do use electric heaters in their racers use them in the oil dry sump reservoir Hot oil with cool water usually equals going faster also
Oil takes longer to heat up so I would use one in the oil somewhere Heats rises, correct

If you don’t have any luck go to the google box and type in screw in block heaters. A bunch come up. If you don’t find what you are looking for you can always modify you radiator and install one

O'Reilly has some immersion type heaters that might be able to adapt into the radiator, just drill a hole and pull it through from the inside and it seals with 2 o-rings and cap nut,. Zerostart #8600880 1500watt should heat the recirculated water faster than I can check the air in the tires.

My buddy used to run a heater on the oil pan and one on the trans pan in his Stocker.

I thought it was thin oil and cool water? I've never heated thin oil. Ever. I'm talking 0W20 or even 5W30.

Maybe you should
Have you ever set a NHRA record in stock or Super stock?
I have helped several NHRA racers due that
Any grade oil hot flows a lot easier with less resistance as you know, correct

OK , maybe I should have asked , oil or water preheat should be used with a World Products Hemi aluminum block with aluminum heads to bring the engine up to tolerances with out running the engine for 10 minutes before a run.

I would heat the oil. It will stay warmer longer and heat from the very inside out. It was 30 something degrees in Dallas last weekend and I left the dry sump oil heater plugged in all morning. I would get the tank warm to the touch and spin the pump to circulate the oil through the system. Probably 5-6 times as things cool off quickly at maybe 40 degrees in the wind. You could do the same thing with a wet sump and a priming rod. Take the cap off, roll the engine around to the timing mark or #1 @ TDC firing, pull the distributor and the shaft and circulate away. 3 screws is no big deal...Run the engine, trans. and rear on the stands to get the water temp. where you want it.

Coolant temp affects block/head (especially aluminum) dimensions more than oil temp. Warm oil flows more quickly on startup than cold oil.
Longevity is definitely improved by avoiding condensation & heating engines before starting them.
We always heated everything up on the serious road-racing & sprint-car stuff, and at the drags, run everything on stands before 1st pass. Let the coolant temp drop a bit before a pass as already noted.

Well noted on the Dallas race. I was talking to a guy Wednesday night that was racing there. He said it took him a half hour to get his alcohol engine started. That's what got me to thinking about putting some heat in the engine before starting. Priming would not be a problem for me as I run a remote distributor with the distributor plug.

It's a pretty common deal in T/S and T/D. All the dry sump tanks have heaters and everyone I know runs the pump before starting. If it's the middle of summer we just prime the system without the heat.

I built my dry sump tank.. no heater but I have
one in the trailer.. I slip the belt off and
prime the oil system in the mourning.. I let
the heater run while I drive to the track..
about a hour and 10 minutes away to the closest
track.. most times its at about 120* or better..
I use a inverter while driving with a 120v heater

0w 20 is my heavy oil 0 w 5 is my light oil.. I also feel that warm oil returns back to the pan quicker than cold oil.. especially when under lots of vacuum

I've read some bad comments about attaching a heat pad to the pan - even some name brands do not shut off when they reach a temperature high enough to be dangerous.
Water is safer since the large volume isn't going to boil.
Water is the only way to get the cylinders warm.
Bill Jenkins 40 years ago: use QD and large hoses to connect hot water from your truck to the race engine. Great for that 1st start-up.

If you run methanol and your trying to preheat things you might consider a primer plus system. I run methanol, I have a pan heater as well as a 2 block heaters. I dont use them any more.I really like the primer plus system as it saves a TON of fuel and I can drive the car around the pits using it. I built my own, but you can purchase them from Rons Fuel injection. Yes I use it under my carb.

My buddy uses the primer plus system , works really well as he is on methanol. I have a all aluminum motor on gas. Right now I'm leaning to heating the water to bring the block up to expanded tolerance. I been thinking about this aluminum block thing and years ago there were a lot of factory engines that were total aluminum. Don't recall any startup and run procedures.

True, but many have the ECM programmed to prevent WOT until water temperature is up.

On my old 426 wedge Dyno mule there was a 20+ hp difference between cold oil and hot oil using 15/40. Warm the oil.

Actually, hot air rises. Heat goes where it's pointed.

Kevin

I did some oil temp testing on the first motor I dyno tested, I saw 8 HP gain from 130 F oil temps with straight 30 wt. oil to 170 F
Later on I switch to 10w30Wt on a different engine and the same brand DTS dyno and saw 3 HP gain difference between 130F and 180 F
On the next motor I built and dyno tested I switch to 5W20WT and saw no HP differences between 70F and 220 F oil temps

Hot water rises, the "thermosyphon" effect allowed some small engines to work with a radiator above the jacket, but no pump.

my world screw in freeze plugs is the same thread as the brodix.
summit or jegs has adapters to screw in the block then 3/4 pipe threads screw into the adapters

Are the KB threads the same as the World and Brodix?

On both of my cars I have 2 block heaters and an in pan oil heater wired to one plug. Also run a 180 thermostat. These are on alcohol. For the screw in plugs on my Indy block, I tapped them for 3/4 NPT and used the heaters from Jegs. On alcohol, heat is your friend. The hotter the air temp, the better the fuel is vaporized. My cars will start and run like a street car, even in 46 degree Dallas.

RIP