Oil pan material question

Aluminum. Application specific tho - Vette pans have "wings" for clearance for example. I believe it's considered a structural part...

I dunno about the iron block truck engines tho...

Ray

All of the new chev small blocks have aluminum pans that are designed to provide part of the structural strength of the whole engine/trans unit. The 4.3 v-6 is like that, the Ecotec is like that, the all aluminum 4, 5, and inline 6 are like that.

Ian

Scary?

Because?

Ian

No. Its about time they started doing that.

Thanks Ian. Can't wait until winter is over.

Scary is when I mash the pedal down to WOT.

I missed the other thread when you were asking about what type of block heater to install. My personal opinion is that the block heater that is installed "in the block" is by far the best. I've tried the recirculating ones that go in the hoses and I've never seen them really do a whole lot other then heat that particular hose up real good.

When I was younger, I had a 71 Roadrunner with a 383 engine. The previous owner (a tech that I worked with) had installed a block heater in each side of the block. "Dual" block heaters. When I plugged that thing in during the winter, it started like a dream, the temp gauge was already off the cold indicator, and heat was coming out of the heater. Very nice....

Ian

Hi...

Just noticed the thread; so may be a bit behind... but I qualify as a cold weather old guy; it's -37 degrees here tonight :(

If it's of interest, and you only want/need it intermittently, what I have on hand for visitors foolish enough to visit us unprepared during the winter is an "electric dipstick"

Simply remove your oil dipstick, stick this in in it's place, and plug 'er in. A warning though should you decide on this route - "check the oil" with the heater dipstick first - it *must* be well submerged in the oil, else there's a tiny possiblity of an oil fire. Having said that, the upside is that it can be rotated among cars - even snowmobiles, snowblowers, etc if you can dip it into the oil.

And if all else fails, what we did back when I was a boy was just open the hood, sit a 100 watt trouble lite on top of the engine, and close the hood carefully. It worked. :)

And fwiw, I agree with the fellow that uses two block heaters. Wonderful! In my case not for more heat, but rather being old and retired I don't much anymore pre-plan trips, so can't really use a timer. Instead, should someone say let's go for coffee, I can turn it on and it's ready to go in only an hour or so...

Ken

Could you glue the pan heater in place ?

Seems to me that following a good cleaning, epoxy glue should hold the heater, they usually end up near the crossmember, as I recall.