This might be a dumb question, but how do oil pan heaters get heat to the upper side of the
engine? It would seem that if I heated the jacket water I could warm up the entire engine. Understand the oil would not necessarily be a whole lot warmer...but isn't it the combusion chamber that needs to be warm in order to facilitate starting of a cold
diesel that doesn't have glow plugs?
Another consideration is that I'm working with a
catamaran here. The engine bay is essentially just under the
deck and above the waterline...so it gets freezing cold in there. I don't have any benefit of the engine being buried down in the bottom of a
boat and catching residual
cabin heat as with mono-hulls.