I’m new to karting and found some articles on engine heaters (hot head heaters) and how pre-warming the engine reduces wear a lot. Does anyone use these? It seems that the water would have to be heated way beyond its normal operating temperature to get the cylinder/piston temperature anywhere near operating temperature. Warming the water to 130 degrees when in the summer for me it’s already 110 without warming, doesn’t seem like it’s going to make any difference. But if I’m wrong and this would extend the life of a piston by 10-20%, it would be totally worth it to me.
I could see some benefit to warming the cylinder if it’s really cold outside. When you start the engine, the piston and the ring really start to heat up fast, and if the cylinder is cold, you can get into a situation where you have the ring ends touch Because the cylinder hasn’t expanded to accommodate the expanding ring and piston adequately.
Typically though just running the engine easy for a few minutes and on the first lap is all you need to avoid that.
I’ve only seen them used on very cold days. Otherwise, 2 minutes of running it on the stand is enough to get heat into the engine and prevent the risk of a cold stick.