Guys
If you want to heat the engine, use a water heater. Go to Home depot buy a $7 1500 watt 120v water heater element with a 1” NPT thread, add a 1” black pipe “T” and a 4” nipple and then you are done. It would look like this:
Add enough nipple to accommodate the heating element
Attach “T” in upside down position with an opening facing up for coolant hose
Insert heater element into the remaining opening parallel to the ground
Now there are a few ways to control the heat output.
1) time how long the element needs to be on, at a given air or internal water temp, to raise the water temp to the desired level. For arguments sake say 15 min. Buy a $5 light timer and set the first “on” series to 15 min BEFORE you expect to start the engine each morning
2) Attach the same water heater element to a thermal switch $20 which is in turn on a timer, the normal condition for the switch will be on and it will turn off at a pre determined temp, say 70 deg f. The timer can go on every morning at 7:00 am and off at 8:00 or whatever you set it at. This way if you decide not to run the engine it will not stay on too long. Two conditions must be met for the element to be on temp<70 and time of day between 7:00 and 8:00 am
If 1500 watts it too much add a dimmer and reduce the wattage. Adjust on time accordingly.
This should be a cheap, clean, reliable way to schedule a warm engine for startup.
Best regards
Scott