Today I installed an engine block heater on my wife's Civic (the orange). Reasons:
- she only drives very short distances (+/- 2 miles)
- her car is parked outside, so she suffers most from winter temps.
It's a type of blockheater with a resistor directly in the engine coolant. Installed in the plug to drain coolant from the block. Installation was much more complicated and difficult than expected. But men needs some challenges, don't they?
If results are (very) good, I will install the same on my Civic (the black one).
This is what I needed:
I did some first testing immediately after installation. Engine was not cooled down 100% yet (started testing at 26?C, while ambient in garage was 14?C).
After 30 minutes, engine temp was 47?C. After 1h: 57?C and after 2 hours: 64?C (really high!). But last 1h min was a waste of energy (had expected this): only 6?C increase.
I will do a more thourougly investigation on engine temp evolution when starting from engine temp at real cold (= ambient temp), and outside to reflect real life.
i-DSi 
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