Has anyone installed an engine block heater on the v (wagon)?

(EDIT - installed and working! See Post 4 below for details.)
I got a block heater for Christmas ( ), was looking forward to a quick mod that would help a little with mileage, and keep my wife & babies warm on chilly mornings.
I found several helpful threads from the Gen II and Gen III forums, read those carefully, felt pretty confident, and went out to install the heater on my v.
I intended to install it from underneath the car, so I jacked it up, put it on stands, and crawled under. Removed the oil pan cover, and located the slot for the heater, no problem. Could reach up and slide my finger into the slot, felt how the clip should be oriented, no problem.
Then I tried dry-fitting the heater element into the hole - problem. There are at least two different wiring harnesses or stiff wire bundles immediately opposite the heater hole. These have a little give, and one has a squeeze-release clip that holds it in place. I removed that, but I still can't get enough wiggle room to line up the heater element properly to slide it into the hole. I can get it part way in (maybe 1/2 inch?) but then one of the wire bundles catches on the "cap" of the heater element, and neither piece has enough give to release and let the heater slide into the hole.

The day I worked on it, I didn't have much time, so I gave up and decided to work on it later. Might have some time this weekend...
Looking down from the top of the engine compartment, I can see one of the wiring harnesses is attached with a bolt, but it's buried pretty deeply in the engine compartment. I think some combination of socket extensions and universal joints might let me remove that bolt, but I'm not positive that will free things up enough to let me install the heater.

Removing the wiper shelf (as originally recommended to install the block heater on the standard Prius) doesn't seem like it will help at all - accessing the heater slot isn't the problem.

So - has anyone actually installed a block heater in their v? Tips or suggestions?
Thanks in advance,
Andy

 

Thanks Chazz! I had found the post in the thread you linked, but wasn't reading it outside while I was working. Also, I assumed some of the wiring harness removal would not be necessary when working up from underneath the car. I was clearly wrong! Upon a second read, both that post and the juiced hybrid writeup (which is great, btw! Thanks!) mention the wiring harness that is bolted in place. This is apparently similar to Step 7 in the JH instructions - the one in the v doesn't look quite the same, IIRC, but it must be the same part. I think I have enough socket extensions and universal joints to remove it without much trouble, but getting it back in might be a challenge.

Now I just need enough time to work on it while I'm home, the babies aren't upset, and it's not snowing too hard... Difficult to predict when all that might occur... I'd love a hand, a photographer, and some moral support, but at this point I just can't plan ahead long enough to schedule a work time!

I'll post back when/if I figure it out. But I guess I just want to let people know this install isn't QUITE as simple as jack up your car, plug in the part, and go. Hopefully loosening that second wiring harness will free things up.

Good to hear from you!
Andy

 

Second attempt was a success! Eventually. It was still quite a wrestling match, but in the end, the heater ended up inside the engine block, and all is well. Will try it out tomorrow morning, to heat for a few hours before my wife leaves for work. I intend to get an outdoor-rated timer so I don't have to plug it in manually or let it run all night.

Brief overview: Removing the bolt securing the second wiring harness ultimately did the trick. That gave me enough clearance, but it was still quite a challenge to align the heater element between plastic-wrapped wire bundles, and put it in without the clip catching on anything. All of the following links were at least somewhat helpful:
Juiced Hybrid instructions (PDF with lots of pictures, top-down install, Gen III standard prius.
PC thread: "EBH Install - Did I do it right" (Gen II)
PC thread: "ebh install - you can do it" - specifically, Post #5 (Gen III)

Here is my detailed writeup, somewhat focused on v-specific points. I didn't take any photos - first, it was snowing and the driveway was snowy/wet, so I didn't really want my camera sitting around. Second, I could barely even see most of these parts, much less get decent photos of them. I did most of this by feel, so pictures would be only marginally helpful anyway.

1. Jack up your v, block rear wheels, secure on jack stands. Open the hood to let a little more light through.
2. Crawl underneath, remove oil door. (If you like working on your Prius, and changing your own oil, you HAVE already fixed the @#$% oil door, haven't you? ) You'd have a little more room if you removed the whole panel that the oil door used to be attached to, but this isn't necessary.
3. Look up at the engine block, find the slot for the heater. Basically, a horizontal, cylindrical bulge, parallel to the ground, pointing in a straight line between the two front tires. Get a good idea how far up it is and what's near it, because you can't see it while you're actually reaching up to work on it.
4. Reach up and feel where the hole is, and which wires are nearby. Put your finger partway into the hole, pull it out, and note which wires would get in the way, or which are directly opposite the hole. There is one pair of plastic-wrapped wires, held in place by a pinch-release plastic anchor. You can probably release this by feel. This is sort of like step 8 in the JH instructions. HOWEVER - that pinch clip was accessible from UNDERNEATH the v. Then there is a larger plastic plate, with some cross-hatched ribbing (presumably for stiffness), that you can't move from underneath. This plate anchors a larger plastic-wrapped wire, but it seems to be the plate itself that gets in the way. I didn't do this, but it would be handy to somehow mark the wires that get in the way - maybe a little piece of blue tape? This would make them easy to spot from the top.
5. Extract yourself from underneath the car, and get your metric socket set (with a 9" extension and preferably a universal joint). Also get a small rare-earth magnet, unless your socket set is magnetic.
6. Look down through the engine compartment, just to the right (driver's side) of the engine block. There are numerous hoses and wire bundles in your way here, so move around until you happen to get a good sight line. Find the small gray wire bundles that would interfere with installation of the block heater. Find the 10mm bolt that goes through a black plastic plate. See Step 7 on the JH PDF - removing this bolt is apparently critical. It requires a 10mm socket, and a 9" socket extension, just barely accessible from above. You'll want to drop a little rare-earth magnet inside your socket, so you don't drop the bolt, and so it's possible to put it back in when you're done. REMOVE THAT BOLT (this was the key step for me). Don't drop it.
It MIGHT be slightly easier here if you remove the wipers and the tray they're mounted on, but I really don't think that'd make a big difference. The access problems were entirely caused by wire bundles and hoses, not the wiper plate.
Before you crawl back under the car, drop the foil-wrapped end of the cord down behind the right side of the engine block.
7. Grab the heater element. Play with the cord connection enough that you can install it purely by feel. Crawl back under the car. Reach up and dry-fit the heater element into the hole a few times. I found that I had to pull the small pair of wire bundles down toward me, and push the plastic plate up, and that made just enough room for the element to slide in. Pay attention to how the clip engages the notch on the engine block, and how it needs to be oriented to engage correctly. Once you add the grease, the clip slides around on the heater element, so it might not feel exactly the same every time. Remove the heater from the hole, but keep it nearby.
8. Grab the special grease that comes with the heater. Squeeze some into the hole, and smear some on the heater element. If you're coordinated enough to do so, it's best to smear it all on one side - coating it too evenly led to my next problem. It was such a piston fit into the hole, that after adding the grease, the air bubble trapped inside the hole prevented the heater from going in all the way! BIG hassle. I'd push it in, and the air pressure would bounce it back out. If this happens, try to pull it out, and scrape along one side as you push it back in. Or take frequent breaks - apparently a little air leaks out, as it seems to go a little farther each time. Once it got really close, I found I had to spin around and reach up with my left hand, this gave me better leverage to push it in far enough to engage the clip.
IF you're able to squeeze all the grease on one side of the hole, to make installation easier, you'll want to spin the heater element once it's installed, to spread out the grease. Not a bad idea either way. After the clip is engaged, the heater element will still spin.
9. Install the cord end onto the heater element.
10. BEFORE you rout the wire and re-assemble everything, plug in the heater to ensure it works. I plugged it in for about 3 minutes, crawled back under the car, and the engine block immediately around the heater was quite hot to the touch. Unplug the heater.
11. Rout the wire however it's convenient for you; zip ties are included with the heater. Follow instructions in one of the threads or JH instructions above, or whatever - just don't stretch it too tight or tie it to anything that will get too hot. I wound it through the engine compartment, between the two fluid reservoirs, next to the fuse box, and out the front of the upper grill. I didn't want to have to open the hood to access the plug, and I don't care if it's slightly visible.
12. Re-assemble the wiring harnesses, put the oil door back on, lower your car, and enjoy the newly increased efficiency!

Hope this is helpful, and let me know if you have any questions,
Andy

EDIT - I'll try to take some pictures sometime when I'm home during daylight hours on a decent-weather day and the twins don't need my attention... Never mind; won't happen. Once you explore a little bit, my text should (hopefully) make sense!

 

Update - have used it for 3 days now, and it works fine. I have it hooked to an outdoor timer, and it runs for a little over 3 hours in the morning. Previously, when I'd start the car on a cold morning, it would take at least 5 minutes of running the ICE before the cabin heater fan would start. This would usually be a mile or so down the road, even if I'd started the car early to "warm up".
Now, after heating with the block heater, the cabin air heater turns on less than a minute after starting the car.

So far my wife has been the only driver, so I haven't personally been able to make other observations (cabin warmup time, mileage, frequency of ICE startups while underway, etc.)

But the quicker heating definitely indicates we're using house electricity to warm up the engine rather than gasoline! I'm happy with it.
Andy

 

Thanks Clark! I'm not on here too much any more, but I'm still enjoying my v (and the block heater). I ended up installing the oil pan heater also, and wiring them together so they're on the same plug. To be honest, I didn't notice much difference after adding the oil pan heater... Big difference from no heaters -> block heater, very small difference from block heater -> both heaters. I can't say how much the oil pan heater will help on its own.
I can say that it's not all that simple to install! (Note - it's been >1yr since I installed this, so I may be forgetting details...) It was certainly easier to access than the block heater, but IIRC it still required wire-brushing all the paint off the bottom of the oil pan, applying some sort of adhesive directly to the heater, and then putting a bead of different adhesive (RTV silicone?) all the way around the edge of the pan heater to seal out water etc. Pretty messy, somewhat time-consuming. And while I was careful with this install, I can't be 100% confident that it's completely sealed - so it's possible that water/salt might someday work its way behind the oil pan heater, and start corroding the oil pan itself, which is no longer protected by paint.
If I were starting over on a new car, I'd definitely do the block heater but I'd probably skip the pan heater. JMHO!