I searched a little bit and couldn't really find anything useful, or whether or not you even call it a engine block when referring to the rotary. But I don't have the luxury of parking my 8 in a garage, so it would be nice to be able to plug it in like I could my last car, so that it warms up much more quickly. So i was just wondering if anyone has an engine block heater on their 8, and if so, does it work well.

 

I was wondering about this too. It doesn't get extremely cold in Salt Lake (usually down to 0F at most), but it would be nice for warm up. Does it hurt the engine to start in extreme cold?

 

I have a block heater on my 8 but I have no idea how it works because I store my car in the winter. It's probably a good assumption that it works better than not having one at all. :D

Chris...

 

Block heaters work by warming up the coolant in the motor. Plug it in for a few hours 2-4 depending on temp and the chill will be gone from the motor. It'll still be cold but not ICE cold. I dunno how well this would work for the rotary in above 0*F considering how touchy they can be when cold, but for typical piston engines they really aren't needed that bad unless the temp drops to single digits or below.

 

you can always install a heater in the radiator hose.

You have to have a plug in the block in order to use a block heater and I don't think we have one.

 

wow, i must say that prior to this, i'd NEVER heard of an engine block heater before! Sounds like a good idea, but i'm wondering if it would be a pain to install.

 

There are 2 main types of these. the most common Block heater type replaces one of the frost plugs on an engine block. It has a small heater element an it and heats the coolant.

The second type is a hose mounted heater. Same idea but you simply splice it into a lower rad hose.

Both make starting the engine *Much* easier in cold conditions.

Here in Winnipeg we can get temperatures in the -30 to -40 range frequently in the winter. Most engines will have a very tough time starting in those temperatures without a block heater. Your engine oil has the consistency of molasses and your fuel doesn't atomize very well.

Chris...

 

I have an electric plate on my oil pan and this thing work very well when the temperature is -20, -30 celcius. I never had problem to start my engine. One of my friend have a heater like poeople talk here and he had some problem last winter.

 

Thanks for the input, Ill have to see how much the stealership wants to put one in. I didnt get my 8 last year until Feb, but there were still below zero morings, and I remember it sucking *****. Trust me abbid, on those few days the 8 would rev up to 4000rpm by itself trying to warm itselft up for atleast 10 minutes in the morning. I just remember it being very annoying and terrible on the gas mileage. I thought maybe an engine block heater would negate some of this.

 

If you routinely see those very cold mornings at least a few times every winter its a good investment.

 

Oh it will!

Warm up will be faster and gas milage will improve greatly. Idles consumes way to much gas in the 8 due to how rich it runs.

 

Thanks

 

Don't know if this would work, but how about the wand-type heater that you use for slightly warming the engine compartment on an inboard boat? It worked for our boat, just enough so we didn't have to winterize it, but the temps in this area don't get that low.

 

So I emailed the local Mazda Dealer, Walser Mazda, and the service guy told me that engine block heaters are "not to be installed" on an RX-8. Anybody else ever heard of this?

I emailed him back asking why, I'll post his response if he replies.

 

As the others pointed out, the frost-plug heater (the most efficient engine block heater) can NOT be installed. However, you can cut the lower radiator hose, and install an inline heater.

http://www.metrompg.com/posts/block-heater.htm

Ours is similar to the Inline heater (non-circulating) in this page.

In Alaska, we additionally install the oil pan heater, battery heater, and transmission heater. The oil pan heater is not as efficient as the inline block heater. Transmission and oil pan heaters are thin rubbery stuff you glue them with silicone:

http://www.wolverineheater.com/faq.shtml

I've heard transmission heater is not so effective for manual transmission (the metal is pretty thick). Battery heater is similar, and you simply put it below the battery. I think these are about $10-20 each from NAPA, and easy to install by yourself.

I didn't have time to do this by myself, so I had all of these installed by our Mazda dealer, and it costed around $400 total. But if you do it by yourself, it's < $100.

It's been unusually warm (above -10F), so I haven't tested how well these will work when it's pretty cold (-40F). RX-8 doesn't have any problems around 0F even you don't have the heaters.

 

They also make magnetic heaters that require zero install. Just slap it on the oil pan. Doesn't work as well as a coolant heater though.