Hello All,

While being on holiday in Scandinavia I see a lot of cars plugged in while parked, at home and even at supermarket car parks.
And I don't mean the electric cars
Lost have an electric heater installed to keep the coolant and/or engine oil warm while parked overnight.
With temperatures being pretty much always below 0C in winter here up north I think that's a nice thing to have.
So far the car has started every time.
But I, and the engine, would feel a lot better when the engine(oil) is warmed up a bit after a cold night.

Is this option available on the L322 4.4 TDV8?

Before you ask: yes I know about the FBH.
It doesn't run longer than 20 minutes or so anyway and won't warm up a cold engine at -25C (and lower!) nights.

Thanks in advance

Some years ago I fitted Kenlowe engine preheaters to 3 vehicles including a Discovery 1. Basically these heaters were 3kw electric heaters with an integral circulating pump that were fitted into the engine coolant circulating pipe work.
They were very effective, l used to leave the cars connected to mains electric overnight with a time switch that switched the heaters on a couple of hours before we needed them resulting in fully up to temperature engine blocks and coolant systems.
The models l used only heated the engine not the cabin but later models incorporated switching for the vehicle heating fan so that the cabin could also be preheated.
I found the heaters to be excellent on very cold frosty mornings, being able to start the cars without issue and being able to defrost the windows in a few minutes without effort.
Unfortunately these particular heaters are no longer available.
There are however a number of alternatives available, go to Amazon and search for engine preheaters.
As far as l am aware LR don’t make such a heater for modern day RangeRovers relying instead on FBHs.
LR did make an electric preheater for most vehicles upto and including RR Classics 2002.
Part number PRC9674.
I don’t doubt some of the available electric preheaters could be fitted to L322s, they are only plumbed into suitable coolant hoses after all.

Something like this perhaps
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284066845164?ch...4c988c1384

Thanks for the replies.

Webasto does make an electric park heater now and it might even fit, or it's possible to make it so, where the FBH is mounted.
Even if it would work with the control unit it would still only heat the interior coolant cycle and not the engine.
Besides that, I think the TDV8 needs the FBH during cold days.

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Thermo-Teufel-E...amp;sr=8-1

This might be something if there is a good spot to get it into the engine coolant cycle.
It's independent of everything and has its own pump, just like the Kenlowe nicedayforit mentioned

There are block heaters too, and as far as I understand they heat the coolant.
If might heat some oil too, the TDV8 has an oil/coolant heat exchanger.
You would need to find an unused plug in the block that's in the coolant cycle.
But they have no pump.

The heater pads linked to by NobbyC are cheap and easy.
If the surface is prepped I think they will stick.
Downside is, most likely, you lose half the heat to the air.

On my way back I will go by a Land Rover dealership in Sweden.
They may have some local Scandinavian solution.



Last edited by SpitfireS on 28th Dec 2021 12:57pm. Edited 2 times in total

I had a DEFA heater in the cooling circuit. In my Terrano II (2.4 petrol), it fitted in a casting
plug in the block directly. That worked brilliantly !

I had also one in a Smart 42.. And one in my Discovery 3. That was indeed in the 'small circuit',
the heating of the interior. But as it was quite a lot of heat stored there, once it started circulating
the whole engine heated up in no-time !

I can not find one for a 2012 4.4V8. They are quite cheap, like GBP 150 or such.

Better contact DEFA to find out if (example) the one for the RRS 4.4V8 fits !

https://www.defa.com/electrical-preheating...ne-heater/

There should be an LR part for this as I had an engine block heater from the factory in my Canadian L322. 2021 P400 Silicon Silver AB
Gone 2011 Bournville TDV8 VSE
Gone 2008 Black Canadian HSE LUX

Looks like we're getting somewhere
@ jez000: was this a 4,4 TDV8?

I suspect the above heater was part prc9674 as above.

https://www.britishpartsofutah.com/Range-R...rc9674.htm

Provided there is a suitable plugged hole in the engine block should work.

Pity it doesn’t incorporate a circulation pump.

I guess THE question now is: does the 4.4 TDV8 cooling cycle has a coolant hose part of the engine thermostat-still-closed cycle that can be used to install an electric heater & pump?
The FBH coolant cycle switches to interior only when it's pre heating so that's not it.
Expansion tank lines are one way, besides, they might be in the thermostat-open cycle.
The 4.4 TDV8 has coolant going to the EGR and oil/coolant heat exchanger but there is no space between the V's for anything else, by the looks of it.
I don't know where those ERG coolant pipes start though.

So... where?

The normal way to install an auxiliary heater fitted with an integral circulating pump is to install it in one of the hoses going to the heater. These hoses give uninterrupted coolant flow to and from the engine block.
The only proviso is that the heater valve in the car is in the open position, which is an interesting point in itself - can the valve be left open when the car is asleep but connected to mains power.
Assuming the valve can be left open the auxiliary heater can be fitted into either the flow or return hose to the heater, you just have to get the flow in and out of the heater the correct way round.
I found it more convenient to cut a hose and then fit extension hoses to each end in order that these hose could then be run to somewhere convenient in the engine bay where the heater itself could be mounted.

It’s a pity kenlowe heaters aren’t still available, used them for many years without issue.

Fitting a heater element into the engine block would undoubtedly work, albeit more slowly due to limited coolant circulation but left overnight the engine block would be hot by the next morning, the heater may or may not be full of hot coolant.

Yesterday I was reading about the 4.4 TDV8 engine cooling in the workshop manual.
And it's not just a pump and a wax thermostat, the system has a pressure by-pass valve and a by-pass radiator (although I have to say I've not seen this by-pass radiator yet but I haven't been looking for it either) to allow faster warm up at low rpm.
The coolant pump can push up to 5 liters a second (!) through the system, but I think that's trough the engine block and main radiator only.
They also mention the by-pass valve is protecting the heater matrix from pressure overload.
This sounds to me there is a high pressure and low(er) pressure coolant loop.
This made me think about the pre-heater pump.
If this is put in series, whatever flow there is through that (lower pressure?) tube HAS to go through the pre-heater pump too.
Would that pump restrict flow?
I mean, when it's not pumping, a pump is extra resistance.
Maybe it's better to have the pre-heater parallel, parallel to the EGR and oil-coolant heat exchanger for example?
But then you have to install T's on both ends and all that.
Pffff... this is getting kinda complicated

nicedayforit wrote:

It’s a pity kenlowe heaters aren’t still available, used them for many years without issue.

Installing a heater in parallel with either the egr or oil cooler would negate the thermostats installed in either circuit.
Any heater needs to be installed in either the engine block or heater hoses for all the reasons you have outlined. Although any heater with an integral pump would restrict the flow to a small degree l didn’t find this an issue.
Do you have a copy of the coolant pipe work for your car?

SpitfireS wrote:

Looks like we're getting somewhere
@ jez000: was this a 4,4 TDV8?

There are printscreens from the pdf workshop manual.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge