Pre-start pre-warm generator without electricity?

[Captain Dan]

In Minneapolis as a youngster we would start a pan of charcoal and place under the oil pan of the tractor and car.

[TinMan Trvlr]

Captain Dan I was just telling my wife about two "Bush Pilot" approaches to ensuring warm oil for aircraft engines that my father used when he flew out of Norman Wells in the '40's. Right after landing, drain the oil before the engine cooled, and get it into a warm indoor space. Then tent the engine and get a fire pot ready in the tent. Light the fire pot a couple of hours before flight time to pre-heat the engine. Rush out with the warm oil, climb the step ladder, and pour it into the engine then quickly swing the engine through, hoping it would catch before the oil stiffened up too much to rotate the prop. If it didn't start, drain the oil out again before it got too thick and get it back inside to warm it up again. Repeat till engine started.

The charcoal briquettes in a metal pan idea may have to be my approach to pre-heating the generator oil "in a pinch" if I don't come up with a more portable heat source. Thanks for the suggestion and the "North of 60" flying memories.

Thanks too to everyone else who has offered ways to keep the batteries charged longer by not leaving the inverter on between uses, etc.

[Dutch Star Don]

Buy the smaller version of the Buddy Heater. Open your front gen bay cover and place it down in the in the open area n the driver's side behind the headlight.

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...content=173690

In the attached photo is a picture of the area I'm talking about. The white thing is a pressure washer I installed in the empty spot. Running the Buddy Heater there for an hour or so with the gen hood closed, should get the temps up.

If yo have to, put some tinfoil around any rubber that might get too hot.

[nutcker]

Just a thought, if you have access to a small portable electric generator like the small Honda 1000 watt, you could connect a silicon oil pan heater that you can get at most automotive stores, I"ve done this in the past and it works pretty decent with my 600 watt Honda, most of those oil pan stick on heaters are only 150-300 watts, some of them, like the ones we put on aircraft have a temp switch that prevents the oil from overheating.

[guardrail53]

Originally Posted by Captain Dan

In Minneapolis as a youngster we would start a pan of charcoal and place under the oil pan of the tractor and car.

We did that once, on a old Cab-over semi, to warm the oil up so it would start in sub-zero temp's! Let it burn down to coals, and slid it under the oil pan, put three sheets of plywood on the sides and front, to hold the heat in! The only trouble is after we got it started, was the cab smelled like burgers the whole trip! Rail!

[Dtwallace]

Originally Posted by guardrail53

We did that once, on a old Cab-over semi, to warm the oil up so it would start in sub-zero temp's! Let it burn down to coals, and slid it under the oil pan, put three sheets of plywood on the sides and front, to hold the heat in! The only trouble is after we got it started, was the cab smelled like burgers the whole trip! Rail!

Had a friend that tried that trick once and I think the fire was a little too big, and it got too hot and started melting caked on grease, which inturn dropped into the bbq grill, and started a flash fire. Was not a good day for him, the truck burned to the ground. Just something to be aware of.

DTW