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Oil Pan Heater

T

Tracy Brown

Member
I have a loader with a Deutz 4 cyl turbo diesel. It starts good except in the coldest of weather here in North MS. It does not have any type of glow plugs or etc that I can find. It does has what looks like a factory oil pan heater that I have never used (broken cord). I plan to repair it to use. Can I leave it plugged up over night without harm?
 
Probably but the best economy may be to put it on a robust timer to avoid spending money heating Mother Nature. Jim
 
no! never leave an oil pan heater going. the oil will boil and you could end up with a blown engine. brother in law experienced that on his versatile with the cummins. the rod brg. right under the heater went. cost him an engine. 2-3 hrs is lots. its the coolant you want warm and does way more good. you can have warm oil but it dont mean the tractor will start.
 
Two dairy farmers in my town have had their dairy barns burn down in the last 10 years due to defective engine heaters. You might want to use it in a separate barn.
 
Yes, my comment still applys , good to have warm oil but saying coolant tractors need more than just that heater is what Im getting at. I have even Tryed with only the pan heater on 560 yes helps but it going make it start. My block heater burnt out. Other wise starting in -20 -30 was very easy outside. U need the pistons warm in the sleeves too. Plus I dont think an air cooled engine will start as good as one with coolant. Even though the neighbor swore by his old duetz 65s.
 
Don't know if it would help you, but up here in NW MN we have switched to full synthetic oil. Engines are much happier. Nothing diesel, but the trucks sit outside exposed to the full blunt of Mother Nature. When I switched to full synthetic, I no longer needed to use engine heaters. I just start the engine and let it run a few minutes if temps are below 0F.

I use Kirkland full synthetic from Costco. Available online with free shipping.
 
I would repair the heater and then take a load reading on it to see how many watts it is, if it's very high wattage I wouldn't leave it plugged in overnight. I would also probably switch to synthetic oil. Our diesel tractor has a factory block heater and I also use a magnetic heater, only 200 watt, on the oil pan, because I use Delvac 15-40. It starts like summer after 3 hours, when it's -20F.
 


There are various perfectly legitimate oil heaters available. They don't produce enough heat to boil your oil. Sometimes coolant heaters were used as oil heaters with bad results. Like Russ posted, if you can't find the rating stamped on it, get a meter on it and see what it draws. They are usually 200-400 watts. The rating is usually stamped into the edge of the threaded plug part.
 
Is the heater glued on? I googled them and it seems the biggest I saw was 300 watt, I would think you could leave that plugged in all night. Is the oil pan on the Deutz aluminum? That will transfer heat faster than steel.
 


I wouldn't leave it plugged in overnight. But you could use a timer or plug it in while you go get a cup of coffee and a doughnut. Something that really, really helps with getting diesels to start in winter, and it gets real cold here in northern NY, is to get a hot air gun and stick it in the air intake. My DB990 has a hole in the intake manifold where a battery powered heater is supposed to go. I never had one of those but since I always park it within a lead cords reach of power I use the hot air gun. Works every time down to -40F if there's enough battery to turn it over. I've put it in the air intake on other machines too. Going through an oil bath air cleaner makes it far less efficient, but it helps.
 
So that's where all this climate change is coming from is all those block heaters on all night on these engines. Glad that's figured out.
 
(quoted from post at 13:23:19 01/26/22) I have a loader with a Deutz 4 cyl turbo diesel. It starts good except in the coldest of weather here in North MS. It does not have any type of glow plugs or etc that I can find. It does has what looks like a factory oil pan heater that I have never used (broken cord). I plan to repair it to use. Can I leave it plugged up over night without harm?
Click to expand...

As others have said, if it is a properly sized heater your not going to cook your oil.

When it comes to leaving it plugged in when it is really cold. If it is a must start machine (feeding livestock, clearing driveway etc) the last thing you want to have happen is you wake up, the power is out and you now have no easy way of warming the engine to get it running.

More than once I have woken up to no power and minus 40, first task always was go outside and start up the plugged in feeding tractor before it cools down.

Some say plug it in for 2-3 hours before you need it, this will work if you have a big heater, say 1500 watts.

If it is a small 300 watt heater 3 hours plugged will provide about the same amount of heat that a common 1500 watt hair dryer blowing on the engine would provide in 36 minutes.

On the topic of hair dryers I have used them countless times to get engines with defective block heaters going when real cold out. A couple of hours with one blowing on the block works well.
 
Only one size was avaible here in Ohio and would not warm up the steel it was atached to let alone the oil inside.
 
The oil pan heater that I bought (and only model in store) you could have stuck on bottom of skillet and it would never have gotten that skillet warm enough to fry an egg but it would just warm the magnit surfas of the heater to where it was warm to the touch. Did I get a defective heater?
 
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