[AT] Engine Heater

[Carl Szabelski]

I’ve heard stories about the covers of the Kat’s heaters melting when being
used, and they apparently don’t work well when used outdoors on windy days,
which is where the tractor currently is. I’m on the fence about getting
one. I’ve used a propane flame thrower to warm up the block before, just
held it under the oil pan and let the heat soak up into the oil and block.
We’re expecting snow on Monday and I didn’t put the snow blade on the H
like I should have done earlier. So now I have the get the H started and
the blade mounted. I usually would have down that earlier, but the way the
weather’s been going, I didn’t think we would get any decent snow this
winter. Too cold to be installing any kind of block/radiator type heater
outside. Hopefully the expected snow won’t be that much and I’ll be able to
forgo having to do any snow plowing even if we do get it and I get the
blade on. A permanent heater is something to consider when I do a rebuild
of the H next summer.

Thanks to all for the replies.

Carl

On Saturday, January 22, 2022, Dennis Johnson <moscowengnr at outlook.com>
wrote:

> Carl,
>
> We used to use diesel fired heaters to warm up oil field engines. They are
> a bit on the expensive side, but they could heat up a 2000 HP engine where
> it would start in about an hour at -40 degrees.
> They make smaller ones of these - school bus heaters, etc.
> I have often thought about trying to make something simpler, where you
> could pipe coolant to a port on the head, and have a lower port for
> suction, and then uses a simple pipe where you could add heat with a
> propane torch. The temperature would cause the hot fluid to rise and
> circulate it. It could work remotely where there is now power.
> The plug in electric heaters would be simpler, but where is the challenge
> in them??
>
> Thanks,
> Dennis
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On Jan 22, 2022, at 3:21 PM, Stephen Offiler <soffiler at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > 
> > I use a "Kat's" brand lower radiator hose heater.  600W straight into
> the coolant, although, unlike the freeze plug heater, some of the heat is
> headed for the radiator. On my tractor, access to the freeze plugs is a
> major challenge, so that swayed my decision.  It works quite well but as
> Spencer also mentioned, you really want to give it a couple hours to do its
> thing.  In exceptional cold I'd consider blanketing the radiator, and maybe
> leave the heater on all night long if you can't wait in the AM.
> >
> > Steve O.
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