Block heaters, water heaters and electric dipsticks.

Figured I'd resurrect this thread on account of all the global warming that's happening down on the East Coast lately...
A heater isn't just for your comfort- cold starts will severely reduce the life of your engine. I've seen fresh rebuilds spin bearings the first winter they're on the road on account of cold starts. Also, heating the oil will keep moisture out of it. Cold start + cold short drive = chocolate milkshake oil full of water. Heat that oil before cranking, and let it get up to temperature before putting a load on it!
On my diesel work trucks I have the following-

• Dual batteries
• Battery blankets
• 2 ea freeze plug heaters
• fuel tank heater

These are all hardwired into a single plug. Of course, once it gets below -30 ambient we just leave 'em running 24/7. The V10 gas rigs have a smaller setup with just one freeze plug heater, no tank heater, and a Battery Tender wired in along with the battery blanket. Yeah you're not 250 miles North of the Arctic Circle but if you're cranking your engine and the temperature is less than 20 degrees, you're tearing **** up inside.

There is some really good advice in this thread- freeze plug is best, then inline coolant. Lower radiator hose inline chingasos don't work as good as direct oil heating, but they work if you can't access a freeze plug or don't have one. They also introduce another potential leak and they corrode quick. Dipstick oil burners are ***. One thing that wasn't brought up was that the universal pad heaters that 29Nash brought up work GREAT on an oil pan. It usually looks like hammered horse**** but if all you need is a few weeks or a couple months worth, then wiring a 100W pan heater on the bottom of your pan will do teh trick. I've also siliconed them onto the underside of the case on aircraft engines, though it's a pain in the cooter if there's oil there, of course.

And a timer or thermostatic control is definitely worth buying- most freeze plugs are 400W and running that all night will add up.

 

Good to see the outcome kevin!