The oil takes forever to warm up on my 997.2 even in the summer. This will be my first winter with the car and my oil is never going to reach operating temperature. I just don't drive far enough. So why not put an engine heating block under the oil pan? Then unplug it before I drive. They're like $50 on Amazon. Seems like a simple solution to me. Could it cause any problems?

 

A block heater isn't going to cause any issue. But I don't think you'll find it very useful.

I live in Colorado and having worked in Memphis through a winter, I'd wager its significantly colder here. Of course I'm also used to the cold, so it doesn't bother me much. The oil takes about 5-7 minutes to come up to 175 in winter, even down in the teens. That's not much difference from the summer warm up. The engine combustion is happening at roughly 1000F and from a scale perspective, it isn't that much difference between 32F and 99F when you're cooling something at 1000F which is part of what the oil is doing. Just drive in a mindful way while the oil temp is coming up. Keep the revs up a bit, but not over 5000 and you'll bring the oil temp up rapidly.

I've driven my .2 C4S in temps as low as -15F going over some passes in the early morning to ski. The oil temp was between 175 and 200, closer to 200F, and there was plenty of heat coming out of the vents. Folks do sometimes use block heaters here, but typically more for diesels than gas engines. You're not going to hurt anything with a block heater, but I'm just not sure it's worth the hassle. We had a block heater in one of our Subies, and I think I only used it once or twice when it had to be parked outside with overnight temps probably expected to hit -20F and I had a early morning drive. The biggest thing it did was make the heat available a little quicker (definitely not instant). If you were in North Dakota, Saskatchewan it'd probably be worth it.

I'd recommend some driving gloves though. For whatever reason, the way the heat disperses in the 997 it tends to have a cool area around the steering wheel even when the defrost and dash vents are full blast. I'm a big fan of Hestra gloves. I worked in the ski industry for some years, where they're known for their durability. I have a pair of their driving gloves and their XC ski gloves. Both give excellent feel on the steering wheel and their XC gloves give just a bit of warmth with Gore windstopper insulation with minimal bulk on the grip side of the hand. The driving gloves are extremely fine sheephair leather. The Cross Country ski gloves are made with their typical Army leather which is goat I believe and offers excellent grip and durability.

 

I'll weigh in as someone that actually lives in a cold place (sorry, Americans, it doesn't get cold there ).

First, for a 911, you'll have to use a pad heater instead of a block heater. Semantics.

Secondly, of course it will help. But as GoldenGorilla said, it won't really solve the problem. You'll still need to warm it up slowly by driving, letting the combustion do most of the work.

That being said, what block heaters are typically use for are reducing oil viscosity at true sub-zero temps (-30C and beyond). Doesn't matter if it's petrol or diesel. Given that one of the biggest concerns regarding the 9A1 engine is uneven heating of the pistons / cylinder / block when cold, I think that a heater is a great idea to mitigate some of that. If you put several hundred watts on it for a few hours prior to driving, absolutely, it will reach operating temps faster.

My winter beater (MkVI Jetta TDI) is equipped with a pad heater (200W), cabin heater (900W) and a CTEK battery tender (permanently mounted in the engine bay). These all operate any time the car is "plugged in." When I lived farther north, my winter cars were also equipped with a battery warmer.

 

Keep it under 5k rpm?!? I stay 3k and under until the temp comes up..

Cw

 

Correct. I understand that always is a lot better for the engine to keep the revs under 3000 RPM until the oil temperature reaches 200 Deg. Even here in Texas (with mostly temperatures 85 to 100 F) the car takes a good 10 to 15 minutes to reach that value. I like to drive it slow to get out of my neighborhood and when I reach the Highway, temp value is almost there. The culprit for so long time could be the huge amount of oil that this engine needs. So the ideal for engine’s health (as I was told) in a cold start, drive away soon (don’t let it stay warming up standing too much), keep it at max of 3k revs until reach operating oil temp (200 deg) and after that, do the the opposite: In normal driving, keep the revs over 3.5 to 4K for better lubrication of engine. That was the advice from my Indy and other P-owners (specially with air cooled and this generation).
FlatSixS

 

After winter's 4-5 month hibernation period, the night before I fire the engine for the first time, I park a small ceramic space heater right next the oil pan. On the 1,500 watt setting, the oil and the coolant is a nice warm 120 degrees before I crank the motor. I supose the OP could do this. Super easy. Just don't drive over it.

 

Yeah this is more like what I was thinking. Do you have a link for the ceramic heater you use?

Here’s my idea: take a small heater (engine block or otherwise) place it on my garage floor directly beneath the huge oil pan, plug the heater into a timer. Each day the heater will turn on 1-2 hours before I drive the car. Simple.

The engine block heaters are magnetic and won’t attach to the oil pan. But will heat still transfer if the block heater is touching the oil pan? I think it will.

 

It's pretty old. Nothing special. I bought it from an office supply store. Take a quick measurement for height clearance, you want a small one, doesn't take much. Try not to use an extension cord. 20 amp circuit is best but 15 will do (cord stays cooler).

 

You are wasting your time and money (as said above, it won't make a difference to warm up) and you likely burn your garage down. Just find a longer route and enjoy the drive!

 

It especially doesn't get cold in Memphis! I don't remember it hitting 32F the year I worked there let alone anything with a negative in front. -30C is -22F, which I'm pretty sure Memphis hasn't seen in the last 13,000 years. We only see that temp in Denver for about 2 hours every 5 years.

You're going to have a much higher chance of catching car and/or your garage on fire by putting a ceramic space heater under your car than you will have of protecting it from self destructing from cold starts. That's a really terrible idea. A very hot element where oil even if its just a bit of road oil might drip and ignite, surrounded by plastics and rubber?

I mean go for it, but you really, really don't live in a cold climate. You'll be wasting a huge amount of energy running an electric space heater versus an efficient(ish) gas garage heater. An integrated block heater is far more efficient than either of those, though there don't seem to be any for porsche 911s, which are designed for daily use in the climate of northern europe, which is alot colder than Memphis and might indicate that they're not really necessary or useful.

And in your climate all of those are a waste vs letting the engine do its thing and use the waste heat of combustion to violently warm itself. Which only takes minutes. Seriously, think about a block heater which might get up to 200F radiating out through the aluminum vs the combustion chamber which is about 1000F. There is no fluid circulation without the engine running and its really limited radiated heat to prevent specific issues in extremely cold environments. My experience with a block heater was that it barely made a difference of how quick the engine temp came up on a Suby (also water cooled boxers with their own sets of issues) with a measly 4.5 qts of oil and short path for coolant circulation. We've owned 4 Subies and only one had the block heater installed by a previous owner. It's not like the coolant was at 180 and ready to open the thermostat on start up and until that happens, no heat in the cabin.

This video gets to why block heaters were used traditionally. Except that it is showing 5W30 rather than 0W40 and comparing a synthetic to good old fashioned fossilized algae juice.

 

I would drain half the oil. Should get up twice as fast.

FWIW, in sub 0 days in NE Ohio, work is 15.9 miles of mixed driving. Takes about 24 minutes. I get engine heat - coolant - in less than 4 minutes, but even when I get to work oil is <150 degrees

 

If your oil truly isn't getting to temperature, pre-heating it isn't going to do anything as it's going to cool back down once the radiators start throwing off heat to the cold ambient air. Really the only logical thing to do is partially block the airflow to part of the front radiators so you don't have the same amount of cooling capacity for the engine and cooling system. Will probably take some fine tuning as to how much surface area should be blocked in order to have a normal warm up period and a stable final temperature.

 

The radiators don’t start working till the water temps are above 180 or 160 depending on tstat. The warmer the block , the less time it will take to get up to higher temps.

 

I tried and ceramic heaters definitely won’t work. There’s not enough clearance to circulate the air. Next up I’m gonna research the magnetic engine heaters. Will they work without being magnetized?

 

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There's really no risk of fire from a space heater unless you're mad enough to put combustibles right in front (on top) of it.

As for magnetized engine heaters (pad heaters) many come with adhesive and just stick on to any flat surface (once cleaned).

And, since there seems to be an incorrect concensus rolling around about how there's no point and no way to heat the oil ................. (come on guys, really? You seriously think that heating something up doesn't heat it up faster?!?!?!)........... here's what the diesel guys do: http://www.frostheater.com/frostheater.htm

That one heats and circulates coolant, but in combo with a pad heater, you'll have your engine up to temp in no time.


I should note that I wouldn't bother with any of this - especially in Memphis - but it is all a valid solution and totally doable.

I plug my vehicles in any time it's below -10C. It's not that it's required at that point for them to start, but it reduces the degree of expansion / contraction stress it feels going from sub-zero to combustion. Since the porsche community is so concerned regarding exact methodology to warm up your engine (don't go over 2986 rpm until the water temp is 190, then don't go over 3276 rpm until oil temp is 90 blah blah) you'd think warming every thing up prior to startup would be better received.