hey yall its 19 degrees out right now in Cheney Washington. My suby is freezing its but off hardcore. What kinda block heater could you recomend for me. Something that i can plug in when i wake up and let it warm up before i drive off to school in the morning. i looked a one today but the lady in the parts store said the only kind for my suby is the kind you put ware the freeze plug goes. im sure i could pull out the plug but i don't want to F stuff up.

The freeze-plug type block heaters work just fine. I have one on our van and in single-digit weather the temp guage starts to move within a minute of starting.

 

A friend of mine has a circulating heater on his Suburban and he has heat coming out of the vents as soon as he starts it. The circulating heaters are usually universal and hook to the hoses between the engine and heater core. Even if the hose sizes are different, you should be able to get adapters for it (if the kit doesn't already have them).

 

I guess it depends on how quickly you want heat as to which way you go. The van already had one in when we bought it, so I didn't feel any need to "upgrade" to a circulating heater.

well the suby dosn't even have one and i really don't feel like messing with the freeze plug as im not even sure how to remove them or even were its at on my suby....withough having the engine out of the car. does anyone know how i can do this...or if its possible withough having the engine out of the car....i can drain the water that is no big deal.

If you get one made for the Subaru engine, it'll screw into the Passengerside front of the engine block, there's a plug there. My '84 BRAT has one, but I haven't even so much as checked to see if it still works. Kinda moot really, as it gets parked to far away from a power source to use.

Subaru sells a block heater that works with both EA and EJ engines. On an EA81 there is a plug that you can remove with a 14mm? allen wrench. It's located on the passenger side of the engine. If you look at the attached picture it's the bigger of the two.

If you're afraid of installing a 'real' block heater you can use the glue-on kind. You really reeeeelly have to get the oil pan clean before installing them. I've got one on my '95 Legacy and it works as well as the in-block one I had on my '87 GL. After I installed it I stuck a couple of layers of that super-sticky aluminum tape over it as a reflector and rock protector.

 

They're about $15.00 at NAPA, plug it in and leave it all night, only draws 40watts.

 

I'd originally bought it to put on my airplane, but am working on the plane in the warm garage while the Subaru freezes outside (minus 9 yesterday am, had heat within a long block from my house).

Hi Peter,

Hey... welcome to this side of the mountain!! I live up in Colville. The plug just unscrews and you screw the heater in and run the elect to the sidewall and up to the front of the car into the grill so you can plug it in. They run about 50 bucks but the benefits far outway the alternatives. I would recommend that you NOT use the hose type... they have caused alot of problems like melted hoses etc... The picture of the engine posted before me was too small for me to see it but.... there is a screw in plug on the front passenger side.

boing

awsome i was hoping that it wasn't the press in type plug. ive seen that plug many times...i will look into getting one. as last night it was well under 20 degrees poor little car...the heater starts working when i pull into the parking lot at school :-\

 

thanks for the tips guys

Hi, I just wanted to add this picture (it gets big if you click on it).

 

boing

As a heads up, you may need an impact wrench do get that damn plug out. Be careful you don't break anything.

well i don't have access to one...but i do ahve a 1/2 ratchet and a cheater bar. if its to hard to take off i will pass and do it when im on the west side were i have access to the rest of my tools,

bought this block heater from Napa today for 27 bucks gonna install it this weekend probably...

 

 

I'll do a little tech writeup when im done.

That looks pretty close to the one sold by SOA

they also make a splice in heater that goes on the bottom raid hose. They dont work as good as I internal block heater does, mainly because its just heating the hose and the surrounding water, instaead of actually heating the block, but theyh do work, and they take about 10 seconds to install if you have a razorblade handy.

nope im installing mine its fairly strait forward.

As a heads up, you may need an impact wrench do get that damn plug out. Be careful you don't break anything.

 

yea about that. to get an impact wrech on that you need to remove the radiator...and its not worth that effort for me. that plug is reaally stuck. do you think its possible to get a fatty pipe and make a cheater bar out of it.. its worked for me on axle nuts so im sure it will work for this plug.?

Ok so its finaly finished...sort of... .

 

here is the tool i used to take the plug out with. I had a hard time with just the ratchet so i made a cheater bar out of a piece of bead frame and a belt.

 

here is the plug

 

 

the hole

 

 

and finaly the heater element itself. ...still don't have the wires pluged in.

 

I removed the cooling fan to get access to the plug, that was no big deal. The real problem i have no is the fan does not fit now that the block heater and wires are in place. and i cant seem to move the heater to the other side of the radiator becase of the water pump and other pullies. any ideas on how i can fix this...do i have to find an aftermarket fan to fit in there? do any of you guys that have a block heater like this?...if so i need some pointers.

 

Also the gasket that came with the heater was a pice of crap. a paper type thing that tore on my when i went to tighten the heater element...so i re used the old gasket, tightened it down real good and hope for the best...I did put a bottle of bars leak in the coolent to fill up any leaks.

 

So now its done...will see if it works in the morning...oh and does anyone have some tips on the fan issue...its driving me nuts...the heater is made for my car but dosn't work with the facory fan...

YOU SHOULD HAVE SEARCHED!!!!

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=27068&highlight=COOLANT+HEATER

 

BAR'S LEAK is one of the WORST things to add, shame on YOU!!

 

If you would have removed the RADIATIOR WTIH THE FAN, the fan with the radiator would have fit back in after the coolant heater is installed, and this would have made the removal / installation easier

 

an OVER-RATED IMPACT and a 8"extension and a cornwall 14mm worked nicely

YOU SHOULD HAVE SEARCHED!!!!

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=27068&highlight=COOLANT+HEATER

 

BAR'S LEAK is one of the WORST things to add, shame on YOU!!

 

If you would have removed the RADIATIOR WTIH THE FAN, the fan with the radiator would have fit back in after the coolant heater is installed, and this would have made the removal / installation easier

 

an OVER-RATED IMPACT and a 8"extension and a cornwall 14mm worked nicely

 

I did search...but if its not the correct wording you might just end up empty handed.

Bars leak has saved our van on vacation and went for another 20k miles still running before we traded it in with 215k miles on it....we suspected a band head gasket....if its bad bummer...ill put my spare block in. if anything happens wich i highly doupt.

 

that post really didn't help me but thanks anyway. I installed the fan after installing the block heater and the wireing. The end of the wires coming out of the block heater will hit the fan blades there was no problem with re installing the fan...its a clearence issue....i will take a pictrure in the morning to show you.

here is a picture of the fanblade hitting the wiring of the block heater.....im almost tempted to go and buy a slim aftermarket electric fan.

 

for what its worth my jeep has the same wiring on its coolant heater. but the heater connection is a right angle to the plug-yours is straight. maybe you could go to the same parts store and look at one for my truck to see what I mean.

thats not a bad idea but that would probably mean buying another assmebly and wireing...not to many places want to sell just the plug and wires....but i will check and see if i even can...might as well try.

I can see from the last picture where that may be a problem..... Hey, if you cut off the fan blades... problem solved!!!

 

Sorry I can't help ya..... If that's the only block heater that will fit on the engine, then you may have to get a slim fan....

FIXED

 

went to napa and they sell just the plugs so i got a right angle plug as they should all come this way with the subaru block heater.

 

 

 

^^ see it works