winter hard starting BJ7

Hello (after a few years of non-attendance). I seek suggestions from the forum regarding heating my BJ7 engine during winter. I live in Iowa and it gets quite cold (0 or below). I plan to purchase and use a specifically designed battery blanket costing approx. $30.00 which, (as I understand it) keeps the low temperature from reducing the battery effectiveness by 40-60%. I recently purchased an oil pan heater. I haven't used it yet as I'm seeking more effective/ less expensive solutions which could provide heat for the entire engine, not just the oil. Although I drive a classic sports car daily I don't have the wealth that here, (those others who live in the mid-west please excuse me ) in the land of the "normal", is usually associated, with possessing vehicles of this type. My question is, could a regular electric blanket draped around the engine work as an engine heater? Heat blankets designed specifically for cars are quite expensive. A standard electric blanket costs +- $40.00 which I could well afford. Now, however off the wall (and perhaps humorous) this engine warming solution might be to you, any suggestions pro or con would be appreciated. Roberte

Roberte,

Are you actually driving the car during the winter, starting it occasionally, or just trying to keep it warm?
What is your goal here?

Well, you could go with the tried and true method of building a campfire under the motor. After all, wood is pretty cheap. However, if this doesn't appeal to you, I suggest one of those dipstick oil heaters. I used one when I lived in upstate N.Y. and had better luck than with the campfire method. :grin:

Install proper coolant/antifreeze.
For winter storage disconnect battery.
You are good to go.
Here in the great white north -40 degrees that's all you do.Spring time comes reconnect battery start it up away you go.
Electric heat costs are high unless you live beside a hydro electric ****,heating it just to keep it warm is a waste of money.

Back in the dark ages of the '70s, I used one of those clamp-on light fixtures, with a 100W bulb. I then found a safe place under the hood to clamp it where it would keep the battery, and some of the stuff under the hood "warm" (at least my 17 year-old mind thought it did). I only did this at night, and when it was really cold. The car always started in the morning. I'm sure there are many higher-tech solutions, but I was a poor HS student, so I used what I had! GL

Worst thing is ethanol that attracts water to mix with the gas. water can freeze in gas lines, filter etc. Use a stabilizer Startron or Stabil regularly.

We don't have your problem out here, but there is one principle that is worth noting: heat rises. Heating the oil pan will allow the heat to rise and warm the whole engine. We have had electric blankets and for years they have been on top of us on the bed. My wife has always complained that they didn't heat enough. This last fall I convinced her to put it under the mattress pad. Lo and behold the bed is now toasty warm and no more complaints.

So, use the oil pan heater and forget putting an electric blanket over the hood. You might find a seat heater to be more useful.

Being 3 hours (driving) south of 58special........... Buy a smart battery charger and attach the permanent eyelets to the battery and feed the flat pin connector out somewhere and connect the charger each evening. I've had a battery blanket that ran off the 12 volt battery in the past but can't really comment on its usefulness. I believe that (ideally) there's two parts to starting in winter: being able to turn the engine over fast enough, and having the gasoline vaporize adequately (I've always wondered about some sort of carburetor heater).
Get a lighter weight oil at the lower end of the multi-grade (5-30?), and install a block heater. Traditionally the block heaters are an electric element that replaces one of the 'frost' plugs and heat the coolant, which in turn heats the block and the oil; it's easier to install an adhesive based heater to the bottom of the oil pan (and heat the oil directly) than retrofit one of those types. There's also block heaters that attach magnetically but I've never tried one. Pick up a timer so you can plug in in the evening and give the car two hours or so before you want to leave. A couple of 60 or 100 watt bulbs under the oil pan with an old blanket over the hood to capture the heat have been tried (a neighbour, -25C, last night) but that's getting a bit more indirect.
Finished high school and university in Edmonton; best we ever did was -96F (temperature and wind) waiting for a bus to get to high school; got a certificate in 1969 for something like 40 days when it never went above freezing including 26 days when the high never reached 0F. Push starting probably wouldn't have worked, unless you were using a small Cat to push with. Anyone else living there, back then? DOug

Fill the tank with gas with good fuel stabilizer , connect to an automatic battery tender , cover her up and let her sleep till spring .....done .

He still hasn't said if he's trying to just store it, or trying to drive it regularly during the winter. The answer will be very different depending on how he intends to use - or not use - the car.

I had a longer slice of information that I was working on but somehow it vanished. To put it simply I plan to use the car as much as possible during the winter. However, when I went into my workshop to install a kat's oil heater (the 1160). which Kat's tech said would also provide sufficient heat to the block to make it a more functional device than I expected. (Naturally one must take info from people who have everything to gain by opening a door onto nothing with a critical mind). Now...where was I? Oh yeah, entering my workshop. It was like walking into ...well... imagine **** as an eternal frozen parking lot. In spite of the COLD! there I was, eagerly cutting open the package as if it was a present under the Christmas tree, ( and I had indulged in a bit of eggnog). And so as I struggled to prepare to get anything done, I was curious why my fingers were clumsy and (hmmm...very interesting) losing feeling. Well, you might guess the reason. Suddenly all my winter plans took a sharp turn into the ditch. I realized the reality of driving in the winter. There I was with an unpacked (and probably un-returnable) $60.00 apparatus that, most likely, I would never use if I surrendered to the painful whip of reality. Naturally, I felt a little frustrated and also wondered why I didn't prepare first and then open the heater package? Later I modified my plans. If I prepared well (2 watch caps, a ski mask, insulated underwear, a heavy sweater, thick pants, 2 pairs of socks, insulated gloves, a substantial leather car coat) well...again I'm sure you can imagine what kind of refuse to give up in spite of all obstacles kind of person I am. (Still crazy after all those years) Now I'm imagining that it might be an interesting adventure on a crisp sunny day, with a clear highway winding out into nowhere...and if I'm really serious about adventuring, the top down. After all, the polar bear club, the Scandinavians, and God knows who else, all look forward to a refreshing dip into the hole in the ice (or something similar). And then there are the British who drove these cars on a daily basis in spite of the weather which, in January, has an average minimum temperature of −0.2 °C (31.6 °F). Eccentric they (and I) may very well be. An addendum: none of these plans include driving in any colder weather than the Brits. Hmmm...but those are average temperatures. I'm sure they kept on driving even if below the minimum line of 31.6 degrees. Anyway, I'll let you know the results down the road a bit. Roberte

I dunno, my Healey starts fine in ~20 degree F (-7 C) weather, without gadgets. Anything colder usually means we're in salt season.

Even with a hardtop and side curtains, though, it's cold! It's puzzling how all that torturous cockpit heat of July disappears so quickly.

One winter a long time ago, I drove a 100-6, with the hardtop on, through the winter while going to college in Kansas. After driving a VW Beetle with frost shields on all the windows in Canadian winters, the Healey in a Kansas winter didn't seem so bad. It also had a cord hanging out of the front, connected to a block heater. Never having seen a car with an electrical plug, some Kansans thought it must be an electric car. Those block heaters were installed in one of the frost plug locations; not sure if they are still available or not, but they did work. Maybe even better were circulating coolant heaters, fit into one of the radiator hoses.

These days, I would rather walk that drive a Healey in a mid-western or northern winter. It just seems like a bad idea for lots of reasons . . .

A car without a block heater in Edmonton is a sitting duck. No one is driving a Healey around here this time of year. Merry Christmas all.

I'm not sure oil has been addressed yet but for winter driving (not done much anymore in the BJ8) up here in snow country at 6500 feet we use 5W40. Its lighter and has less resistance for starting.

I run mine all round the year, granted we do not get much at zero or below. My old girl used to be the pits at starting, took ages with the choke out etc. I ran the car like this for 13 years. After the engine rebuild in 2013 it still was a problem. Some crafty detective work in the dizzy and a chat with a Healey mechanic revealed that the moving plate was not clamped correctly to the fixed plate in fact, the three pronged spring clip under the plates was actually two, the third prong was in the bottom of the dizzy. After correcting this, and a few other dizzy related problems, everything in the garden is now fine, I can even get the engine to tick over at 500 RPM when first starting.
This may not be the cause of your problems, but, if you do not mind undoing the two holding screws and releasing the fixed plate, it is just a matter of turning it upside down and taking a sneaky peak to see if all is well.

Best of luck



Bob