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Diesel engine heaters

B

bc

Well-known Member
Hello guys. Just got that new to me Ford 1500 diesel tractor. Have ordered glow plugs from ebag which may get here by the end of the month.

Have researched the various heater options. This one is a little 2 cylinder nippon Shibaura diesel. What I want is some kind of circulating heater that will keep the whole engine warm. Not sure a block heater will work for this tiny engine and don't want a magnetic oil pan heater cause I want the heat up around the head and cylinders. The circulating ones are made to go on a heater hose which this one doesn't have. It has 1 1/4" radiator hoses.

Question is will a lower radiator hose heater heat the water hot enough to open the thermostat and flow throughout the engine or do they heat the water in the block without having to go through the thermostat? Thanks.
 
Not sure how big the pan is, but if you put a magnetic heater on there and block the wind off, enough heat should rise from the
oil to help it fire easily. Warm oil helps one crank easier as it's not as stiff when it's cold. You might be able to find and
inline heater for for the 1 1/4" hose that'll fit in the space you have. Good luck.
 
Don't overthink this, Phil9N3667 is right. and please stay away from the starting fluid with this engine
 
These work really well. They used to come in 500, 1000 and 1500 Watt sizes. 1500 is probably more than what you need but it would work just fine. Advance Auto Parts and many other places as well. Easy to install. My neighbor has had one on his Ford 5000 for over 20 years. Leaves it parked outside all winter long. Starts every day.

cvphoto70553.jpg
 
The thermostat bypass is more than likely large enough to allow the flow to be operational. Another option is to access the block drain for the intake
to the "tank" type heater, and put a T in the top rad hose, or if it has a bypass hose outside the Water pump. Jim
 
Your tractor is open station with no heater. Just cut the upper radiator hose and insert a Tee fitting with hose clamps. Run the outlet hose from the tank heater into the
Tee. Works!
 
Typically an external tank heater like Bill shows can be hooked up to a hose added to a block drain, with the return plumbed into the head somewhere- like a thermostat housing, temp sender port, etc.

An issue I ran into trying to add an oil pressure gauge to a Shibaura was the only tap was on the head where the warning light sender was located- the threads were British! I ordered a BPT brass tee from McMaster Carr, and tapped one side to 1/8" pipe for the gauge line I was adding.
 
bc... I read what you said about oil pan heaters. I have a New Holland TC21, a similar tractor to yours. I installed a oil pan heater that
is permatexed onto the oil pan. Very small and thin. Been down there for 20 years. It does a great job of heating up the whole engine, as
heat rises up through the hot oil. Simple installation of just cleaning up the oil pan, and gluing it on. No breaking into the water jacket
of the engine. Further, as I thought about the challenges to a cold start engine, I felt that warming and quickly circulating the oil, was
much more important than having hot coolant. I see them on Amazon for under $30.
cvphoto70554.jpg
 
IIRC, back in "77, we put our first block heater on a MACK six cylinder 237 HP engine. The next morning, it didn't spin over ten
times and fired off. Had heat from the heater, and the windshield was clear because the heater was left in the defrost position!!
I put many a one of them in over the years.
 
BC, to further confuse you, I had a Ford 1510, which had the 3 cyl. Shibauru diesel. It had the engine block heater which worked good. My other tractors which are all
larger 4 cylinders, use the external circulating tank heaters like the one Bill wis pictured. The most popular brand is generally Kats.
 
Sorry about overthinking things but that's how I am.

The dilemma is what will heat the engine enough to get it to fire. Right now with temp in the thirties it will crank and crank and not fire. Just got a download of the manual which says to have the throttle wide open so I'll try that in a while.

My thought is along the line of the glow plugs and getting the heat in the cylinder first and the oil and water second. I know the oil has to be thin enough to circulate to help it turn over but figured hot water circulating through the block will keep the head, block, cylinder, oil passages, and gravitate down to the oil in the pan and maybe keep the fuel lines a little warm as well. The other advantage of a circulating heater is that the engine will be close or at operating temperature at startup which would be a good thing.

Short term solution would be to put a light bulb next to the block and head area by the fuel lines. That won't work for outside very well. Got an extra stock tank heater I could prop up against the oil pan but don't think that would turn on.

I'll take another look as I don't remember a bypass hose in there.
 
To me starting fluid should only be used. By people that know how and when to use it. I have seen many engines damaged by it. Never use it with glow plugs and one quick small shot is all you need.
 
I worked for the local FORD dealer in the 70's uncrated and setup LOTS of the 1100-1900 units,, the block heater worked very well on them and no plumbing in and getting a place for the coolant to circulating wrong when the check ball went bad which does not take long,, those engines would start @-50F no problem without a heater but we always suggested them as it was sure easier on them,, tank heaters are fine,, I just do not like the issue i spoke of above,, I seen it hundreds of times here,, most never had a clue they were making a cold spot in the blocks when the check ball wears and lets coolant flow backwards, its yours do what ever you think is best, just suggesting
 
I've used the lower radiator hose heater on probably six different tractors. I have always had good luck with them. Plug them in a
hour or so before I use the tractor.
 
I've got these pretty much fitted on everything bigger than a pick up now. I've only ever had one fail and it was well over 10 years old and took about 2 minutes to swap out....two vise grips to clamp off the hoses and you lose hardly any coolant.
Unlike core plug heaters where you end up with half the coolant out of the engine and they never fail in the summer!
 
Not trying to horn in, but there don't seem to be many of these around so thought you might be interested. I have a Shibaura SD1400B that I'm parting out due to a shelled ring and pinion. Everything else on the tractor is in good shape, LE0752B (2cyl diesel) engine runs like a top, tin is about 99% with some small pinholes in the bottom of the nose on the hood.

If you need anything, let me know. pfoxyATyahooDOTcom

 
bc,

A block heater is the way to go. Then the oil will be warm and the whole block. This
will help to crank the engine, but a starting (your glow plugs), with the block heater
is all you need 95% of the time.

The other 5% of the time? ...stay Inside....




Guido.
 
I agree with Case nutty, if there is an expansion plug in the block fairly easy to access that is what I would use. I do not agree with the recommendation that someone made about placing a tee in the upper radiator hose as a point to install a tank type heater. This will just lead to the heated coolant circulating through the radiator doing nothing to preheat the engine. I suppose it may work if the connection to the top hose is the inlet to the heater and the tank is in such a location that the thermally heated coolant can rise up to enter the engine block. A heater cut in the lower hose will also work, but again the thermal flow from the heated element must have an almost constantly rising flow route to the engine and not the to the radiator.
 
I have always had very good luck with KATTS tank engine heaters. My dad had a lower hose heater on a wd45 diesel. The heater would heat the water in the
radiator but not the block. Tractor was very hard to start below 40 degrees. it was bought for the square baler. So it was rarely started in cold weather.
 
Those little fords need the glow plugs when it’s 110 degree above zer0 worked on a lot of em at the dealer an they would not start sitting on the blacktop in August without glow plugs
 
I like the tank heater I put a 1500 watt on my 3020 and it will
have the coolant temperature gauge on the high side of
normal when’s its 20 below zero if I plug it in overnight which I
always do anyway
 
At the new holland dealer we would install the freeze plug
style heaters in those tractors they work good and only take
about 5 minutes to install
 
Our JD4600 had a block heater, and I put a 200w magnetic heater on the oil pan, because I run 15-40 oil year around. Plug it in for a couple
of hours and it starts immediately. But, the oil pan must be ferrous metal that a magnet will stick to, some modern engines have aluminum oil
pans. The heaters that you glue on work on anything, and are a little hotter, but none of them will burn the oil.
 
Block heaters are the best route. We have both the blockheaters and a couple lower rad heaters. No soft plugs to put a block heater on a 574 so lower hose it is. has worked good for 40 years. I do think the rad hose heaters are not as durable as the block heater is though. I've changed out a few of them because they would not work the block heaters are all still in there and working 30and 40 years later.
 
Thanks. Will try to get a block heater and see if Napa has them in stock. Looked at the location of the 45mm soft plugs and one is in the middle of the cylinders right under the head. Looks like a good place for a heater. If that doesn't get the oil very well then I can add a magnetic one on the side of the pan. This ford has four wheel drive and the drive shaft is about an inch below the pan.

Those fords are cold blooded. I warmed the barn up to 62 degrees yesterday and cranked on it for a minute and it didn't even try to fire. Then tried another 30 seconds and same thing so I gave it a shot of juice and it took off. Went out and mowed a waterway for an hour to test it out. Pulled into the barn and shut it off. Then tried to restart it and it would just barely run enough to release the starter then it would die. Finally give up. New glow plugs will help for sure when they come in.
 
(quoted from post at 16:30:09 01/08/21) To me starting fluid should only be used. By people that know how and when to use it. I have seen many engines damaged by it. Never use it with glow plugs and one quick small shot is all you need.
Click to expand...

This is true.
 
(quoted from post at 17:30:26 01/08/21) I've used the lower radiator hose heater on probably six different tractors. I have always had good luck with them. Plug them in a
hour or so before I use the tractor.
Click to expand...

As have I.
 
Oil heaters are pretty useless in the fact that with oils of today the multi viscosity oils will flow in cold weather better than the old single viscosity oils and as soon as that oil starts flowing over that warm engine it will flow even better so for the extra electric cost I would not bother with them unless you live in Siberia or such that gets into extreme cold.
 
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