Engine Heaters to assist cold weather starting. Which type?

[Trash Panda]

As far as I know oil is a poor conductor of heat. So temperatures may get high near a heat source.

Apart from that, what is the point heating the oil when it is basically back to ice cold block temperatures a few seconds after starting the engine?

Oil heater plus block heater is fine. Just heating the oil does very little.

I’ve fired up a lot of trucks in extremely cold weather just by heating the oil pan and getting a set of jumper cables on it. Sometimes rural setups render the use of a block heater a non-option.

Oil is a decent conductor of heat, not as good as water, but decent. Cranking an engine over with oil that’s been pre-heated to 100ish degrees absolutely knocks the chill out of the combustion chamber and will help to get a stubborn engine to fire off.