I am looking for a pre-oil system for my '04 2.5L OBW. This system would prelube the cylindering, bearing, and seals before the engine is started. Calls to my local auto shops, NAPA, Autozone, and Fisher resulted in lots of confused service reps. After doing an Internet search, the only automotive pre-oil system I could find was from AMS Oil for $300-$400. Has anyone seen another other system. I would be interested in a kit system, but don't want to design and build from scratch.
Also, has anyone every seen a battery power block heater?
Peace of mind I guess. I was thinking the same thing myself. Maybe if he's starting and stopping the car a lot, but I've read that since the engines are flat, it takes a longer time for the oil to drain down into the pan, so who knows.
I'm mainly interested in getting infor on pre-oilers b/c I used them in marine applications and thought I'd look into them for cars. I don't do much driving that requires securing my engine and then restarting. However, I do east coast ski and thought it would be better for the engine to get oil to it before starting when cold. This would be much better if somehow I could heat the block or oil first. I'm just getting people's opinions, but I'm thinking it doesn't make much economy since seeing that AMS Oil's system is almost 400USD and ppl are getting 300K miles just doing minimums for car care.
Thanks for the input on everything. Brian P.S. If you want to read about pre-oilers, pros/cons, run a search for them on alt.autos. You'll also learn about aircraft and startups, kinda cool.
LOL. It refers to the dinosaurs who died so that we could pump it up out of the ground. (Which is a misnomer, because most of our oil and coal actually comes from long-dead *plants* not dinosaurs.) The term "dino" is used to distinguish between "natural" oil and synthetic.
Unless the engine's sitting in really cold weather for a relatively long time (weeks or more?), I'm afraid I miss the point, too! But I live in SoCal, so I don't even know what cold is. :D
Ever torn down an engine and felt the pistons, cylinder walls, cams, rockers, etc.? Notice there's a LOT of residual oil in most parts of the engine even after it's sat for quite some time? Or lost all your oil at speed due to a blown cooler line or other catastrophic failure? IF you can get the engine shut down fast enough, you'll probably be ok. That one I know from experience--I was surpised there was NO visible or measurable wear on bearings or other items I checked before buttoning that particular engine back up and putting another 75k miles on it. I should probably put on my flame suit before speculating this, but I think the "wear at engine startup due to lack of lubrication" idea is a highly overrated problem. Although Castrol's capitalizing on the idea with their GTX Start-up or whatever they call their new stuff. Wonder if it still works after the engine's running?
OTOH, difficulty starting and poor running of a really cold engine might warrant such a system... though a good plug-in block heater oughta take care of things for most people, IMO. I'll keep an open mind!
I would tend to agree with you. I think we are talking about SEVERE winter weather here for such a condition. My dad told me stories of winters in Alaska about using engine block heaters just so the engine would turn over.
Castrol kinda lost all credibility with me when they suggested I needed a "High Mileage" motor oil at 75k miles. I'm still running Mobil 1 at 100k and I never have to top-up between oil changes.
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