Alaska cold: pan heater vs 0w20

Joined
Jan 5, 2017
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384
Location
Talkeetna AK
Moving to the Delta Junction area in interior Alaska this summer....Covid-19 and open borders with Canada permitting. Temp routinely gets down to -40°F...sometimes colder.
No garage for a while.

Plan to use 0w20 Castrol Magnatec in both this fall. Pour point is -51°C/-60°F
Also changing out the transmission fluid. Mercon LV pour point is -48°C/-54°F
Transfer case in F150 uses Mercon LV.
Changing all differential fluids with Mag1 75w90 pour point is -51°C/-60°F (wish I knew what super tech's pds is!)

See signature for vehicle info. Both Transit and F150 have block heaters. First time transmission, transfer case, and differentials will be changed.

I plan to add a battery blanket to the F150 ( transit battery is under the driver's seat)

I can put heaters on the transmission, oil pan, and differentials....but do I really need to?
If I do, I figured that it would be best to run the wires to the front of the engine for easy access, to be close to blick heater cord, and securing them. But I also figure that would be a pita?

Appreciate any help and your experience.

Edit: not seeing my own signature...
2015 Transit 10 passenger. 3.7l. 42k miles
2016 F150 5.0l 54k miles.
 
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At -40F your transmission won't shift above 2nd or 3rd for many a mile until the fluid temperature warms up a bit. The oil in the differentials will thicken enough to be readily noticeable. The warm engine will help heat the cabin sooner and the engine will start easier and faster. You will almost need to bring in two separate circuit feeds for all those heaters if you go that route.
 
Nice to see your proactive, keep in mind there are 100's of thousands of vehicles out there today exposed to the -40 to -45 cold, even mine on occasion. 0w20, a weather front and a engine block heater should be suffice, battery blanket would be optional. I'm not sure what the rest do.
 
Originally Posted by CONMCK
Nice to see your proactive


Actually I'm a bit OCD.
smirk2.gif
 
At That temp I would also find a way to safely mount a small electric heater in the cab for defrosting and warming the cabin. I have used the ceramic cube type with success but never at -40, in Iowa it was -22F and it worked well. Cabin felt toasty after being outside. I moved south after that winter!!!! I suggest a winter front or carboard in front of radiator. Do you even need a radiator at that temp?

That way you can run with the heater off during engine warm up and maybe the first few miles so you get coolant hot faster.

Rod
 
I ran a fleet of 200, 2015-2016 Ford Transits with the 3.2L diesel.
What I landed on for guaranteed start was.
Battery tender junior to keep battery at peak - 125W
Stock block heater - 400W
Oil pan heater - 150W
We had box trucks so the up fitters wired it all through a shore plug at the front drivers side corner of the box.
Adding 150W pad heaters for the transmission and same for rear diff is doable on a 15amp service.
We used Wolverine pad heaters.
 
Look up Webasto heaters on the internet. There are companies that install them for you, probably most of the companies that install them are in Canada and Alaska. You want to get the hydronic heaters that heat the engine through circulating the engine coolant through the Webasto heater. These systems even take over the controls of the vehicles cabin heater fan and pre-heat the cabin of the vehicle to the temperature you set, along with the engine. You can pre-program them when to turn on, and or turn them on by remote control. They run on a small amount of fuel from the vehicle, and a small amount of power from the vehicles battery. They have a microprocessor built into the system that automatically controls the unit and several built in safety features. They make units that run on Diesel and gasoline, and are even used in sleeper cabs of big-rigs, and their larger versions can heat a bus.

These units are not cheap, but they are nice to have. They do require some yearly maintenance, like replacing the combustion screen and fuel filter every year, and the glow plug every couple of years. Also use them sparingly, because they do use motors that have brushes in them for the combustion air fan, and the hydronic pump, and brush motors have a limit on how-many hours they last.

If your vehicle does not have a second battery, you might want to add one to insure the power draw from the Webasto does not drain the battery too much.
 
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Pad heaters are next to useless when it gets really cold. The cold engine block will absorb the heat from the lukewarm oil quickly. Engine blockheater (freezeplug heater) and/or Webasto is the right way to go.
 
back in the early 2000s i used to leave for work around 4:30 in the morning , the last thing i wanted to do was fool around with a no start truck or car.

Always used a block heater but some mornings things would just not turn over quick enough, added a 1 amp trickle charger, boy what a difference i swear they would spin over as if it was summer out what a difference a fully charged battery makes at minus 40.
 
I found a combo of a block heater and Wolverine oil pan heater work well in extreme cold.
 
Originally Posted by tundraotto
Pad heaters are next to useless when it gets really cold. The cold engine block will absorb the heat from the lukewarm oil quickly. Engine blockheater (freezeplug heater) and/or Webasto is the right way to go.

Pad heaters are meant to keep the oil "lukewarm" so it pumps faster to the critical engine components.
This is why they are usually employed in conjunction with block heaters.

To the OP, most people do not waste this much money and effort on their vehicles up here.
Combined with harsh cold, there's pot holes and salt/sand than accelerates the aging process of the body and suspension.
If your objective is to keep the powertrain minty, then by all means, go for it.
But as many others have discovered, this is an exercise in futility.
coffee2.gif
 
Originally Posted by JimPghPA
Look up Webasto heaters on the internet. There are companies that install them for you, probably most of the companies that install them are in Canada and Alaska. You want to get the hydronic heaters that heat the engine through circulating the engine coolant through the Webasto heater. These systems even take over the controls of the vehicles cabin heater fan and pre-heat the cabin of the vehicle to the temperature you set, along with the engine. You can pre-program them when to turn on, and or turn them on by remote control. They run on a small amount of fuel from the vehicle, and a small amount of power from the vehicles battery. They have a microprocessor built into the system that automatically controls the unit and several built in safety features. They make units that run on Diesel and gasoline, and are even used in sleeper cabs of big-rigs, and their larger versions can heat a bus.

These units are not cheap, but they are nice to have. They do require some yearly maintenance, like replacing the combustion screen and fuel filter every year, and the glow plug every couple of years. Also use them sparingly, because they do use motors that have brushes in them for the combustion air fan, and the hydronic pump, and brush motors have a limit on how-many hours they last.

If your vehicle does not have a second battery, you might want to add one to insure the power draw from the Webasto does not drain the battery too much.

Looked it up....thanks for the tip but yes, expensive.
 
Originally Posted by Lolvoguy
Originally Posted by tundraotto
Pad heaters are next to useless when it gets really cold. The cold engine block will absorb the heat from the lukewarm oil quickly. Engine blockheater (freezeplug heater) and/or Webasto is the right way to go.

Pad heaters are meant to keep the oil "lukewarm" so it pumps faster to the critical engine components.
This is why they are usually employed in conjunction with block heaters.

To the OP, most people do not waste this much money and effort on their vehicles up here.
Combined with harsh cold, there's pot holes and salt/sand than accelerates the aging process of the body and suspension.
If your objective is to keep the powertrain minty, then by all means, go for it.
But as many others have discovered, this is an exercise in futility.
coffee2.gif


I'm not looking to pour money into this. Changng out the fluid is normal maintenance and about tge only added expense I'm putting into this with the fluid change is the Mag1 instead of Super Tech
11.gif


Seriously just wanting the vehicles to start and funtion and hoping to keep them for as long as possible without too many problems but not go overboard.
 
For the tranny you could look into using Redline D6 or Amsoil ATL, redline has a pour point of -60C(-76F), Amsoil ATL has a pour point of -65C(-85F).
For Some reason I would speculate that Mag1 and SuperTech gear oil are probably the same thing in a different package given they're both Warren Distribution products, but I can't verify that.
 
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Originally Posted by Iowegian


I'm not looking to pour money into this. Changng out the fluid is normal maintenance and about tge only added expense I'm putting into this with the fluid change is the Mag1 instead of Super Tech
11.gif


Seriously just wanting the vehicles to start and funtion and hoping to keep them for as long as possible without too many problems but not go overboard.


With that in mind, I would say your most cost-effective options for extreme cold would be consider adding a coolant recirculation heater like those by Phillips and Temro (either on top of, or instead of your frost plug block heaters). I had one I put in an old TDI Golf, and even on the coldest nights approaching -40, it started no problem, and I had instant cabin heat, with the coolant gauge already reading halfway to normal at start up.

Also consider adding battery blankets and a trickle charger, as a warm battery is more efficient, and you will need all the energy you can get out of it to start an engine in extreme cold.

Winter fronts can help retain the heat when you're driving. They can be pretty cheap and crude if you don't care how it looks, such as pieces of cardboard zip-tied, or an old blanket. Or, they can cost a bit more, and be purpose-made specifically for your vehicle.
 
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