GT Block Heater

[CDN OpelNut]

Here's a question for you GT historians.

When I bought my 71 GT it had a block heater bolted to the block. I removed it 15 years ago since I don't drive in winter and it's been in a box ever since.

I'm thinking of selling it to someone who can use it but I'd like to know if this was a dealer option on the car. I don't have a photo of it yet but can post one if it helps.

[BQS4]

I think, judging that you're in Canada, that it was more than likely a dealer installed item.

[GTJIM]

Got this from my 1971 Buick Dealers' Opel Accessory handbook:

[tekenaar]

Originally posted by GTJIM Got this from my 1971 Buick Dealers' Opel Accessory handbook:

True, but picture shows this to be a "freeze plug" type heater and the accompanying chart ONLY lists Buick engine applications, which use much larger freeze plugs. Opel engine freeze plugs are about 1/3 the size, so this "block heater" would NOT work on the Opel CIH engine. Back in the day, you could get "freeze plug" heaters from a variety of sources, though they were primarily made for American V-8s.

[kwilford]

Otto beat me to it. It is impressive that a guy who lives in Texas knows about block heaters

As Otto said, the Opel CIH engine doesn't have freeze plugs big enough to accommodate a conventional insert-type block heater (which are also used in Honda and Toyota/Lexus engines, as this very cold Canadian can attest!)

My two GT's both came with block heaters, but of different types. Myrna's GT (now gone to Opel heaven) came with a strap-type heater such as CDN OpelNut describes. It was clamped (or bolted, I forget) to the drivers' side of the block. My GT came with a heater that was inserted into the lower rad hose (which was cut in the vertical section and the heater clamped in between the two halves).

Is it worth something? Sure, to someone who drives his Opel in the dead of winter. But I found that the circulating type of coolant heater that fits in the heater hose works better, as it pre-heats the heater core as it warms the engine.

JM2CW

[tekenaar]

Originally posted by kwilford Otto beat me to it. It is impressive that a guy who lives in Texas knows about block heaters . . . . . . But I found that the circulating type of coolant heater that fits in the heater hose works better, as it pre-heats the heater core as it warms the engine. JM2CW

Maybe that's because I grew up in Lake Orion (Oakland County and just north of Pontiac), MI! Michigan before Nam and Wayne State after were my alma maters. Ah, college in the sixties . . . an experience unlike any other.

Here's one of my darker political cartoons drawn for the campus newspaper: