TAMD61A block heaters

[jaredjensen]

Has anyone installed block heaters on these engines? The closest coils I could find are from HotStart and ZeroStart, but they only confirm it fits the TD61. And the instructions say "44mm threaded plug on Left Front (LF) of engine", but I think the TAMD61A plugs are 40mm.

So instead I'm looking at thermosiphon heaters installed at the 1/2" NPT plugs where the hot water loop would go:



My concern is that it might create a high point that will trap air at the return connection on top of the engine. An alternative is using the barbed drain fitting on the side of the engine below the turbo, but there's hard pipe around there that would make installing fittings and valve difficult, plus it's not much higher than the supply side below the water pump.

I'd love to hear from someone who has done this already before I go buying parts. Thanks!

 

[firehoser75]

A much simpler, and in my opinion (and the opinion of Tony Athens a diesel engine "guru") better and easier option would be to install Wolverine oil pan heater(s).
They are easy to install (as long as there is some access to the bottom of the oil pan) following the supplied directions and "glue", and they only use 250 watts of power.

They do take longer to heat the engine up to a warm temp, but they are effective in improving cold starts, keeping moisture at bay, etc., and use less power leaving more amps available for other uses such as chargers, heaters, fans, etc. etc.

Just a suggestion, and they would alleviate all of the concerns you discussed.

 

[jaredjensen]

I should've mentioned that the main goal I'm trying to achieve is reducing startup smoke on these old mechanical diesels. Even in our "cold" PNW temps of ~30F, the engines start without a lot of cranking. But they don't stop smoking until warmed to about 100F, which will only happen under load. Fortunately, they don't smoke at all once warmed up, so this is really just a nuisance issue.

So my thinking was that warming them to ~120F would result in generally less wear and also reduce startup smoke. If nothing else, it'd hopefully allow me to cast lines immediately after starting so we could get load on the engines faster, instead of running them at high idle (~800 RPM) for a couple minutes at the dock first like we do now.

The boat came with oil pan heaters installed, but to be honest I've never even plugged them in because the previous owner commented in another forum that they didn't make much difference, and I've never heard of pan heaters reducing startup smoke.

I'm happy to be proven wrong, though! And it *is* a little ridiculous that I haven't even tried them yet, so I'll run them overnight before our next outing as a test. Thanks for the reminder!

 

[rslifkin]

If they're left on long enough the pan heaters should help with startup smoke. They're usually lower powered and the blocks will only warm from heat moving upward from the oil, so it will take a lot longer to get the whole engine warm than a coolant heater will. It's definitely worth a try to see if they do enough on their own or not.

 

[firehoser75]

Based on my experience with the oil pan heater, it did reduce smoke on a cold startup, but like rslifkin stated, they do take longer to "warm" the engine. Due to the relatively small power consumption, I left mine on anytime we were connected to shore power during the shoulder seasons (did not boat in the winter) and often during the summer as well. Our Nordic did not smoke much during a cold start (but did a bit) without the heaters, but using the heaters did make a cold start quicker, probably reduced engine wear during a cold start due to warm, more easily flowing oil, as well as it did reduce start up smoke (noticeably).
Diesel's do not require a warm up prior to leaving the dock. Start up, check for proper operation (like water flow), cast off and get underway. Do not increase rpm's until the engine has warmed under a small load (like idle or just above) until you reach close to operating temps. This "warm up" routine is described by Tony Athens of Seaboard Marine (sbmar.com) and BoatDiesel fame, a marine engine guru.
Hope you find that the oil pan heaters work for you.

 

[jaredjensen]

it did reduce start up smoke (noticeably).

Thanks, I'm looking forward to testing this out. I've got an Actisense EMU-1, so I can read the coolant temp as accurate as whatever comes from the sender. I'll report back with the start/end temps after running pan heaters overnight, and what the effect is on startup.

Diesel's do not require a warm up prior to leaving the dock.

Yep. I only run ours long enough to get the idle to smooth out, which is usually about 1-2 minutes, or basically the time it takes my wife to cast lines off. So we're not really warming them up at all, and coolant temp only has time to rise about 5-10F before we leave the dock.

 

[North Baltic sea]

Hi,
The purpose of these heaters is to reduce mechanical wear on the engine during cold starts, and for those who don't have time to run the engines up slowly, e.g. rescue boat, to keep the engines warm and ready to go with a higher load.

Greetings from the -17°C region...

 

[DPKCK]

I used immersion heaters on a prior boat with Cats (Hot Starts as I recall). Had a few instances where the units' thermostats went bad and the units stayed on. Got way too hot and started to melt wires. Now I used Wolverine pan heaters.

 

[jaredjensen]

Had a few instances where the units' thermostats went bad and the units stayed on. Got way too hot and started to melt wires.

Oof, that's not exactly a glowing review, but good to know!

The Volvos also have an air pre-heater, but the previous owner had a small fire with one, so he disabled them. IIRC, it had something to do with the combination of a bad timer relay and accidentally knocking the unfortunately-located flybridge helm key into the pre-heat position while underway. I did confirm the timer relay was damaged, and it's my understanding they're prone to failure. But I think they're designed to aid really cold starts, which isn't a problem around here, so I'm not planning to replace them.

 

[jaredjensen]

Turned out only one engine had a pan heater, which my money says the previous owner added as a test. It's a 250W Zerostart pad, and I ran it for about 20 hours after confirming the pad was actually getting hot (too hot to touch).

When I went to the boat today, it had raised the coolant temp only 9F over the other engine, so I'm not convinced pan heaters (at least this one) would significantly warm the entire engine. I think it'd only lower the oil viscosity to help cold starts (which isn't really a problem here). Starting the engine revealed it did not make a noticeable difference in initial smoke level.

I've got a Hurricane diesel heater, so I'm thinking about getting a couple heat exchangers (wort chillers) and coolant pumps to plumb into that loop. That should get the coolant up to 40F above ambient (says the manufacturer), and coolant pumps will work faster and draw less than immersion/thermosiphon heaters, so running them when on anchor wouldn't be a problem.