D.I.Y. Engine Preheater

This is a preheater I made out of an ammo can, some flexible aluminum dryer hose, a dryer conduit nipple, pig putty, and an MSR XGK camp stove. The video demonstrates setting it up and lighting it.

I got this idea from an Alaskan flyer who posted on a web forum. His design had two hoses, but my aircraft has retractable gear therefore ample room for one big hose through the gear door under the cowling.

I built this primarily because I wanted a "simple" and very portable heating solution since I am based at a tie down with no electricity. Will also come in handy when away from home at a lonely strip ;-)

Basically, I cut large holes around the bottom of the ammo can... over 1 inch diameter on the ends, the long sides I used smaller holes. Jig sawed a large 4 inch hole in the lid for the conduit nipple and used high temp pig putty (plumbers epoxy) to seal it in. I have a peice of safety wire to hold the dryer hose in place on the nipple, and also a loose one to hold it from extending when not in use. The hose is fairly limp when extended, it will extend to 5 feet... I just extend what I need and shove it up in the cowling.

The camp stove will burn any kind of liquid fuel, gasoline (unleaded), white gas, kerosene, Jet-A, diesel etc. The bottle is 20 oz. and should last up to 2+ hours.

Lighting the heater requires it's own prime and preheat. Give the bottle a few pumps. Let some fuel into the heater bowl, light it. Let it heat the jet and bowl up... when it starts "poofing" it's ready to crack the valve a little. Eventually you end up with a nice blue flame, the bowl will glow red.

It cools down fast after shutoff also. When outside in cold temps, the whole thing is cool enough to touch within 2 minutes.

At 16F with calm winds, no cowling plugs or engine blanket, it melted the ice off the cowling and heated the engine to 40F within 35 minutes. The bottom of the crank will be the hottest being nearest the tube. Give it a few minutes after preheating to normalize the temps a little before starting.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• aircraft
• engine
• preheater

[gell7]

shit youruning out of your tent in yur underpant

[solarisjedi]

Eh? No tents and underpants here. Just camping stoves and airplane engines.

[GMascelli]

Does the unit push a good bit of heat? I was giving some thought to maybe adding a 4 inch duct fan to "help it along" that could be plugged into the trucks power point.

[solarisjedi]

It's entirely based on convection, yeah it gives off quite a bit of heat. I'm not sure how much a fan would help as all the heat is coming directly from the flame and it's exhaust. I would think as long as I had enough holes for convective airflow a fan would not be needed. Let me know what you come up with though :)

[pitbike2006]

good job make some holes on the side of your box so it can get cold air in and come out hot like if u used it in a tent it would keep geting hoter and hoter in the tent give it a try

[solarisjedi]

Yeah it probably does need a few more holes to let air in. I originally wanted to keep the wind out of it since it can be breezy on the tie down. I'm still experimenting :) I may upgrade my dryer hose with some insulated scat tubing to prevent heat loss through the hose itself. I have 2 more ammo cans I can cut up for improved designs heheh

[synthesizer301]

what a waste of time

[Aweber87]

So point of concept is to attach/point the hose to the engine/block area? Then the heater "preheats" the block loosening the oil and is much easier on the engine when started?

[agcatdriver]

@SeniorProperNoun First of all, this is being used to preheat an aircraft, not a car. Secondly, these same type of preheaters have been being used by bush pilots in Alaska and other extreme cold climates for years. Get a grip, man.

[oilfield666]

you could use smaller diameter hose to warm different spots of an engine with this idea.... warm oil, water and block at sametime... for frozen trucks and machinery i use a propane tiger torch with some tin ducting....

[SeniorProperNoun]

@solarisjedi I predict that the excessive heat in the metal box will "cook" the rubber under the fuel line's brass braid, the abused rubber will then crack up and barf uncontrolled, pressurized gasoline all over, burning the car down, along with the garage.

When the Fire Marshal catches you, he will own you.

[alane2526]

Thanks for sharing! I'm going to get started building one this weekend!

[oilfield666]

this is a simplified version of a pro-heat or espar heater