winter warm up

[JCL]

Originally Posted by X Wife

Very old thread, by my X definitely "zings" when it's below zero out. It's -10*F at the moment and it's making me cringe every time I start it. I asked at Shucks/O'Reilly when I was there buying oil pan heaters for another car, and they did have a block heater that stated it would work for the 2001 3.0. I was told that the stick-on oil pan heaters are superfluous with full synthetic oil.

These oils have a pour point colder than -40 (C or F) so in that sense the heaters are not necessary, but for those that want to be kinder to the machinery, they aren't a bad idea. With the crankcase ventilation valve problems, the idea is that if the engine is already somewhat warm, it will warm up quicker once started, and that gives more time to boil off the condensation if you are doing short trips.

I like the oil pan heaters compared to coolant heaters, as they are entirely external, with no chance of leaks.