Light bulb under oil pan?

[BPD239]

It works good on boats too. I had my boat out this spring and was concerned about the low temps. I put a 100 watt light in the bilge and had no problems. It was surprising how warm it was in there with the light bulb.

 

[TheKid]

It sure worked for my old Craftman mower. That thing hated the cold. Put a bulb under the hood for a couple of hours and it would fire up like it was summer time. I've got one ready to put under the Kubota if we ever get enough snow to plow.

 

[Rch]

Incandescent lights have been described as little heaters that happen to make a little light /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Junkman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Incandescent lights have been described as little heaters that happen to make a little light /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif )</font>

Apparently you haven't read about the "dark suckers"... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[Soundguy]

I loved that thread about light and dark... and when a light bulb 'burns out'.. and looks dark.. it is bacause it is 'full' of dark and can't absorb anymore.

Dark travels faster than light too... turn on a light.. takes a sec or soo to be able to see.. turn off a light... it is dark immediatly. etc.. Anyone have that post?

Soundguy

 

[Junkman]

Here it is..... I never got to read the entire post, because I lost track of what line I was on, I was laughing so much.... This is for the more tech types on the site...... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif Dark Sucker Post..........

 

[keeney]

Here in MN, many vehicles used to come equipped from the dealer with a block heater - the end of the cord is left dangling out the front grill a few inches. I think they are only 50 to 100 watts or so. Makes a huge difference in start-ability in cold weather if you plug it in a few hours before you want to use the vehicle.

Some commercial and government buildings are even equipped with rows of outlets in the parking areas for the employees to plug in the heaters during the day so their cars start at night. Also common in fleet parking yards for school buses, police cars etc that _need_ to start reliably the next morning.

I have personally used a magnetic stick-on heater on an old car that had a weak battery on a one-time basis. It worked great. However, I wouldn't trust the magnet to hold it on while you drive - a chunk of ice or something could knock it off of the oil pan.

I have also witnessed a buddy using a pan full of glowing charcoal slid under his car. That heated it up and got it started in less than 20 minutes. However, the charcoal technique is frowned upon as being fairly unsafe because of the ease of which any leaking or accumulated oil on the outside of the engine can be ignited!

Modern fuel-injected-into-the-cylinder cars and better low-temperature performing oils have made such tactics generally unecessary with newer vehicles.

One of the issues with carburated engines in cold weather is that a lot of the fuel will condense on the inside of the chilly intake manifold and cylinder walls and will not form the proper air-fuel mixture for good combustion.

- Rick

 

[SPIKER]

Ive had to use the light bulb thing a lot; we use to keep a 100 watt bulb burning inthe old pump house (out house size building holding the pump & water lines) to keep it form freezing, never had a problem unless the bulb went out and you didn't know it. I now use my 500 watt halogen work light and set it on the tractor front end steering linkage and shine it at the injector pump & engine side. it is about 20" away from touching anything but in about 15 min the pump & fuel filter is warm to touch so the thing starts like it is 80 degrees out and it only takes a few min. Started last year in 0 deg temps with about 20 min of light on and no block heater. it took about 3 trys using the light on and the glow plugs. once the warm fuel hit it the white smoke went right away.!!!

what they say about standard resistance light bulbs is the about 80% of the power consumed is let off in the form of HEAT and only 20% is light. something to think about...

Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif




Oh the DARK suckers came from the Handyman club site, where it was attached to a long post all in fun about how electricity works! lol. it is great funny post too.

 

[28RedHorses]

I tend to agree with Egon. Maybe this is becoming too complicated? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

I bought a $75 heater for my diesel car and it cost me $25 to get installed.

28Red