Oil Pan Heaters vs Coolant Heaters?

[ttkeeler]

Yes, they do. They also offer a block heater for my tractor (955). $73 for the "field install kit" which comprises a 1" NPT heater and a cord. I sourced the same thing from an "other than Deere" supplier for $36. As usual, go green and take it in the shorts.... or excercise your options and keep a lot more green in your wallet.

Any idea if this same $36 heater would fit my JD 970? I need to get something on mine to help the battery out when its cold.

 

[Mechanos]

Sorry, I don't know anything about the engine in a 970. If you provide some more information or maybe a picture or two the engine, I might be of more help. The ZeroStart heater works great in my 955

 

[ttkeeler]

Sorry, I don't know anything about the engine in a 970. If you provide some more information or maybe a picture or two the engine, I might be of more help. The ZeroStart heater works great in my 955

I have contacted Zerostart about a block heater for my 970, will post the results.

 

[boggen]

block heater ^ya^

made the old 555c diesel start up nice and good. though for me. i don't have a barn large enough for it. and the places i can park it at outside, to run a extension cord out to it. results in the tractor being directly in the wind.

i tried the 1 hour plugin, no good, i tried letting it warm up for 2 hours no good. finally after 4 to 5 hours i could finally feel the difference with me hand on the engine block from both sides had rose a good amount. again this being single digit or below zero temps. with wind chill way below that.after it warm up. hit the key and blug blug blug away she went.

===============
next winter. will be a battery blanket / heater. hassling i would guess 60 to 80 lbs battery in and out of the house to keep it warm over night and dealing with the bolts is no fun in dead of winter. nor is jump starting / charging the batteries.

i had to jump start it a couple times with a 200amp charger batteries don't have as much juice in them the colder they get *sighs* same days had to jump the other tractor including the Blazer.

 

[greg_g]

Is one better or more effective than the other? I park inside my heated garage most of the time, but sometimes I need to leave it outside and with temps occasionally dipping to -20, I need to do something to be sure she will start if needed.

There are different degrees of cold, so you really have to customize your heating solution to conform with your cold start conditions. I've stored all my tractors in the same unheated shed, open at one end. Basically a windbreak. Of the previous five, three had oil pan heaters. The other two had finned pans, no place to adhere the heater. Hard starting buggers, I didn't keep them very long.

To me, warm oil was more important that a warm coolant. I used the specified 15W40 in all of them, and that stuff gets pretty thick below 15 degrees or so. Glow plugs/intake heaters did a good enough job pre-heating the cylinders, and 4 of the 5 had compression release. But cranking with cold/thick oil is real hard on bearings/bushings/oil pump/battery/starter. So my philosophy was to keep the oil thin. Plus, the oil pan is the lowest part of the engine - and heat rises. Given that the tractors were sheltered from the wind, 125 degree heat rising from the oil warmed the water jackets as well. Some of that even conducted backwards towards the radiator.

The trick with oil pan heaters is to get the right one in the first place, and to then install it properly. Those magnetic things are a joke, and the dipstick heaters are simply dangerous. But if you correctly size the pan heater wattage to the engine oil capacity and adhere to the installation instructions, the good ones are designed to keep the oil at a constant 125F. My personal recommendation for an effective and durable pan heater is Wolverine. Personal opinion again, but I would avoid Kats heaters.

That said, they were all open station geared tractors. My current tractor is a cabbed John Deere with eHydro, and the engine uses thinner 5W30 oil. Given that it's got heater hoses, I'm going to go with a circulation tank heater. That warms both the block and the heater core (for the cab). But as winter is on the way out here, I'll have to wait till next winter to determine whether or not I'll need a transmission heater. Hopefully the prescribed low viscosity transhydraulic fluid will preclude that expense, but only time will tell.

//greg//

 

[MikeD74T]

I service two Cummins diesel fire pumps. By their nature they must start on demand & go immediately to rated speed. Both have coolant heaters that keep the engines at operating temperature. The oil is not heated. Be very careful of heated oil & cold blocks about rpm on startup. Pistons will expand faster than cylinders in cold blocks & scuffing can result. We also have two 12 cylinder Cummmins with coolant heater, cold oil, and two Colt-Peilstik generators with coolant & oil heaters. The oil heaters also maintain full pressure in standby.
I'll go with a warm block every time on a tractor.

Boggen, Consider getting a concrete curing blanket for your tractor, the insulated tarp type. MikeD74T

 

[KennedyDiesel]

I'm more of an oil pan heater guy myself. A block heater will do a better job of supporting combustion, BUT the oil in your pan is dead cold. I do not use the magnetic type heaters though as they have poor conductivity. The pan heater that I use is adhesive backed and attaches to a patch of bare metal you sand clean on your pan. They use less wattage so you will typically run them longer. Since heat rises they will help the upper end somewhat.

My 3720 has no problem supporting combustion at temps well below zero. I use 5w40 Mobil Delvac synthetic oil year round.