Greetings--I'm going to buy an engine block heater from mazda. THEY'RE ONLY $50. I thought that was rather reasonable. I called a radiator shop, and they said that it's mounted low around the radiator, and radiator lines are spliced. The heater supposedly warms the coolant, and it flows through the block. Cool reliability mod at a reasonable price. But....DOES ANYONE HAVE THE SLIGHTEST CLUE HOW TO INSTALL THE DAMN THING? How about you Canadians---could any of you mail me a picture? any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks,

-BN

 

Why would you consider this a reliability mod? And why are you buying it? It shouldn't get so cold in stl that you'd need a block heater!

 

I know if Stl is anything like KC, that it gets so ***** cold at times and i'm sure anything warmer cant hurt the engine. I've thought about it, just so the first 2-3 mins werent so hard on the car and some morning it takes as least 15min. But trust me is getting pretty damn cold in the midwest.

 

As a Canadian, every car of mine has always had a block heater. EXCEPT the FD! Remember...we definitely do not drive our 7's during the winter, so block heaters are not standard equip.
Sorry

 

I wonder how much power it drains from your house... sounds like a good idea though. I would like to see some more info before I buy one, for that price though I dont know if I can go wrong.

 

According to Mazda, the Canadian models ALL came stock with the heater. And it does get cold as ***** in St. Louis. We have a couple of solid months of 30's and below. It's not fun to start up the car. I would assume it wouldn't take any more electricity than a small appliance, for that's about what it is.

 

When I was younger and had really crappy cars that didn't like to start when it was < 30F, I used to run a long extension cord out to the car (had to park in the street living with the parents at the time), and hung a safety light ($12) in my engine bay. Ya, I was young and dumb, but it helped me start the car in the morning and never caught it on fire...heheheh

k