Hitchcocks Forum

Having read in a recent thread how best to warm up a bike/ should one even consider starting a bike which has been put away for winter, brought to mind a feature on a 3.8 Jag I had the good fortune to own, way back in the days of £.s.d. This lovely old car was fitted with an oil warmer. Basically a 240volt heating element, similar to a kettle element was installed in the sump. During cold weather you plugged it in overnight whilst the car was in the garage, and in the morning the oil, if not the actual engine was all warmed up. It struck me that it wouldn't be too difficult for those with some engineering prowess to cobble up something similar to fit in the dip-stick/oil filler hole of a bullet engine. I wait with baited breath!

Reg, dipstick hole engine oil warmers have been around for a very long time, however they are (expletive deleted) expensive.

I wasn't aware of that Papa. I wonder why they should be so expensive? Should be easy enough to make. Basically you just need an element of appropriate length and diameter. Thermostat might be the tricky bit. Maybe incorporated in drain plug?

I would have thought a home brew heater would be similar, or a tropical fish tank heater too....Mind you, the problem of oil being too thick in cold weather was cured by using a lighter grade winter viscosity and then later by using the wide range multigrade oils.....Les

I used to have a engine water heater on an old Landrover. It made a lot of difference to cold morning starts.

Electric heaters?, you've all been spoilt, I used to have a paraffin sump heater with a wire flame trap above the wick, you lot had it too easy

Pet shops have Fish Tank heaters at a reasonable price. They will easily fit down the oil filler tube.

I don't think I will be using this method of warming the oil:-

Well at least it works. When I was a kid my Dad had 4 Austin FX4, the old London cabs, he used to make a fire on a coal shovel and move it along the line to get em fired up in the winter.