What does the block heater heat ?coolant or motor oil

[Heinz- Jürgen Kowalek]

I'd like to know what the block heater heats up. In case it heats up the fluids is there a kind of circular pump in? sorry perhaps stupids questions but I'm a brandnew owner of an 01 F350 and feel pretty lost almost alone her in good old Germany

[Mark Kovalsky]

Guten Tag!

The block heater warms the coolant.

[SmokeyWren]

The so-called block heater is not in the block. Instead, it's in the base of the oil filter and the engine oil cooler. There are both oil and coolant passages in that base, and the heating element is in a coolant passage. So it directly heats the coolant, but some of the heat also transfers over to the oil passages.

It doesn't need a pump. Convection will cause warm coolant to flow away from the heating element and be replaced by cooler fluid, so there is some flow in the coolant passages of the engine. The motor oil will also flow some, but the main reason for the block heater is to warm the coolant, and thus also warm the metal in the engine block and heads.

[Heinz- Jürgen Kowalek]

Thank you very much ,
your reply was very helpful because I think about to install an vegatable diesel unit.

[Heinz- Jürgen Kowalek]

thanks for your answer
I did'nt expect any german words.