oil sump heater

Buy a KING SIZE electric blanket and cover the whole car....   

On second thought Leon that's not a bad idea at all. It would surely make the VS snug and comfortable...but, it's the cold syrupy oil I want to warm up!!!!

Carl, just get the damned car in your garage...then you can worry about keeping it all warm and cozy  The burnt orange one, I mean.

Here is an electric dip stick oil heater

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html...il+heater&crdt=0

EBAY, OF COURSE !!!

Why didn't I think of that?...Thanks Larry

We used that dipstick style on school buses for a while.  Had a few of the magnetic stick-onto-the-oilpan style, too.  Both worked OK, but the BEST thing we did was put the buses into a heated garage.

Even if we just held the garage at 40°F, everything was happy.

Bear in mind that the dipstick style heater often has quite a lot of heated stick protruding from the sleeve ("one size fits all", but a VW engine doesn't need a 20" stick) so you have to be careful how you set it all up with nothing getting close to the heated stick.

 Canada has outlawed the dipstick heaters beacuse of alleged car engine fires....

That figures.  Almost everything else has been outlawed up here, except for a cocaine smoking, beer swizzling mayor of our largest city.

Sorry, I don't mean this to be a political post...

I've used one of these a few times.

http://www.harborfreight.com/p...hop-light-66433.html

Bob...get over it, eh? Rob Ford's Wife is a very good cook apparently.....not much to look at though.

Bill, that halogen shop light could serve a dual purpose, and it's less expensive than a heating dip stick too....but does it produce enough heat to warm my oil sump?

I just hate the idea of turning that engine over with thickened syrupy oil initially doing a lousy job of lubrication

Carl, many years ago I had a Volvo with a 6 volt electrical system. It would barely turn over parked outside in the Winter.  I used an electric dipstick and covered the engine with a heavy packing blanket. It worked like a charm. I was a kid so I never even considered the possibility of a fire. And as fate would have it...I never had a fire. They say ignorance is bliss.

Now with "global warming" it never gets cold in the Winter, so you should be OK.

Carl those lights are 500 watts. They make a good bit of heat. In a garage and strategically placed it will warm the bottom of the motor in about 20 minutes. You could probably make toast on them.

Further to what Bill says, they are also available in 150 to 500 watts. Plenty of heat....and that's what I'd be careful about. Any oil leak, fuel etc could ruin your day or garage...etc. Those lights will do what you need but use them with caution.

Not all of the 500w is heat-- there's a fair bit of light as well (as that is the purpose of the thing), so it's a pretty inefficient way to heat something. The light will work, but 500w running 24/7 is the equivalent leaving the door of your freezer open round the clock. It's a significant amount of power.

I know how "value oriented" you are Carl ()

By comparison, a dipstick heater probably draws no more than 10w. Just something to think about.

Carl, the "value oriented" guy...makes me smile . But he's a lovable "value oriented" guy.

"Value oriented" is a polite way of saying "cheap"...Thanks Stan

"Loveable" is a polite way of saying "muddle headed"...Thanks Rich 

We're just funnin'with ya, Carl...you know it too. 

My airplanes both had a rubber heat pad that was epoxied onto the underside of the engine.

There was an electrical plug incorporated and an extension cord cpould be plugged in to keep the engine warm.  Simple, easy, permanent and the engine was always ready to fire up even on the coldest winter days.

Search on aircraft supply sites if you are interested in one for your Speedster.

Carl- I can guarantee you I'm 10x as cheap as you are. Rich is right, I am funnin' with you. You're a valuable addition to this site.

Hey guys,

My "Thanks" was sincere appreciation for your considerate euphemisms.

Carl:

I've gotten so cheap that I am making my own toothpicks from the trees I'm clearing on my property.

Yow, who said anything about 24/7. I took it Carl just wanted to temporarily warm up the block a bit before starting the engine. Laying the light back and placing it under the exhaust for just 15-20 minutes will warm it enough for an easy start. Done it many times!

If anyone has ever parked on the street in North Dakota you saw an engine heater as part of the parking meter! 

Thanks, Bob. That was perfect! I love watching the brothers Ford. Canada produces the best comedians.

BobG

I'm cheaper than you, I'm clearing my neighbor's property

Glad you enjoyed the comment, Terry.  Some people are comedians because they want to be; others play that role simply because of who they are.

I KNOW NOTHING

I used to have this dog that was a dyed-in-the-wool "outside" dog - you couldn't coax that dog inside the house with a T-bone steak!  We had one of those plastic "igloo" dog houses for him out on the patio in the back yard.

One year we had an exceptionally cold winter - sub-zero temperatures.  I felt sorry for the dog and thought he would appreciate a little extra heat, so one evening, when they were forecasting record lows, I got my trouble light with a 60 Watt bulb and rigged it inside the doghouse on an extension cord.

Anyway, about midnight or so, I hear the dog barking and howling.  This went on for a few minutes, so I got out of bed, put boots and coat on, and went outside to investigate.  I went out the front door looking for what was making the dog so upset, and I couldn't see anything but I smelled this odor of plastic burning.  I walk around to the back of the house and there's his dog house with flames just rolling out of the igloo opening!

I had to real quick get the garage open, get the garden hose out and the outside faucet turned on, and make an aggressive attack on the doghouse fire.  I was on the fire department at the time (retired now) and there was NO WAY I was going to call the fire department to put out my dog house fire.

The whole time the dog is giving me this dirty look like "OK, dummy!  What are you gonna do now?"

But the moral of this story is:  Be careful with the improvised crankcase heating techniques.  They might work better than you anticipated.

Why did I have to look at that?

Gerd, please...  We need to be warned first.  Half the SOC is traumatized.

I could'a gone all day without seeing that...ow

Unfortunately, some of the remaining half isn't.

Al, I coulda gone my whole life without seeing that!

Gerd, filter yourself! I like some of your posts, but this one crossed the line....