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I've used the dipstick heaters and found them to be useless (so I wasn't happy, seems others are).
Sump oil heaters are the bees-knees! VW flat-4 units worked like a charm and the magnet or tape/glue-on units for regular sumps are great.
With your "tank" style unit, I'd plumb it into the heater circuit as it is a by-pass type system (by-passes the radiator, i.e. not regulated by the engine thermostat). If you must use the radiator hose (not recommended as you lose all the heat through the very efficient radiator and very little goes into the block), then adaptors can be readily found by raiding MG's at the junk yard for their heater supply elbow.
Theory:
Whether or not you heat the water or the oil or the air around the engine is a matter of efficiency/purpose.
Proper oil (low wt in winter) will crank over just fine without any heat.
Clearances (mostly near the water jackets) are tight when really cold so water heaters are nice for this (as well as quick drive-off due to nice warm cabins and clear windows).
Oil will flow nicer when warm and retains heat better than the water so cranking will be reduced and things will warm up quicker but not because the oil is warm, necessarily.
Oil pan is usually lowest point in engine. Heat "rises" (actually convective currents in the air), ergo...
Water mass in block is large (as is block) so you get a large "reservoir" of heat and it radiates in all directions (in contrast to the convective effect of the air in the block but not opposed), so the oil gets warmed too (albeit not as much.
So, MY BELIEF is the sump heaters are more effective as they distribute more heat to more of the engine for a given power input (but both types do the job).
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Mike!
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