Would an engine heater help with slow clutch take up?

Would an engine heater, such as the OEM block heater, or an after-market oil pan heater, like the Wolverine, help with the slow clutch take up in cold weather?

 

Nope. Just ignore it... Or move to a more tropical location.

 

No, it inserts into the back of the block and would not affect clutch movement or hydraulic fluid temps.

 

Nope.

Good for the engine but won't affect the clutch.

The clutch gets slow because the fluid gets thick when it's cold. Roughly speaking the viscosity of brake fluid is about 15-20 cst when it's warm out, in contrast at -5F brake fluid is about 1500 cst, so from 15 to 1500.

You can get brake fluid that doesn't get as thick when cold (but is still about the same thickness when warm) by using Low Viscosity fluid, seen usually as dot-4+ or super dot-4 (iso 4925 class 6). It's cold viscosity is HALF that of regular brake fluid at around 0F

 

It will, eventually. With an oil pan heater, blocker heater and battery heater all running the rest of the engine bay and transmission does warm up somewhat.

 

Depends on how cold it is outside . Below zero... Would need a LOT of heat going in.

 

The modern block heaters really don’t get as hot as the old ones, we think it’s due to liability concerns over fires. It may warm it up but it would be inconsequential

 

With my 2nd gen at -4°F it took three hours and my transmission warmed up to 14° just from the heat radiating around it and through the metal.

 

Block heater not helping clutch. When my truck started and warmed up for at least 20 minutes, (-32Celcium, Canada, Eh?) starting driving slowly, not
pushing throttle before clutch fully engaged (my experience is 1,5 seconds delay). You can form this skill as fast as 2-3 really cold starts. My experience.

 

Sure the transmission itself which is a direct metal connection to the block, but the clutch pedal is separate.

I will admit my taco is an auto, so I'm not directly comparing to op vehicle, but in my manual car the block heater does absolutely nothing for the clutch pedal stiffness.

 

I guess this would be a "No" as well....

 

Well, the clutch won't be sticking...

 

True…..

 

it won't help. you might have a bit of moisture in the clutch lines. i would bleed them.

 

Make a clutch pressure plate and disk heater then become rich!


When it is that cold, everything is slow-stiff.

 

Nope. Get low viscosity oil and flush old oil. Pump clutch a few times on cold days to generate a little heat in the oil

 

I'm in the frozen land that is Wisconsin and replaced the clutch fluid with DOT-4 and it is very noticeably better in the cold. The other morning it was -4F and the clutch felt normal.

 

Crazy idea here-. Just put a small generic heater near the clutch reservoir. Or something like that... It's not so complicated

 

maybe you could install a small electric heater for the clutch fluid reservoir. although, i don't think that's worth the fire risk.