Block heater thought?????

[Isaac Ristow]

I'm not a fan of magnetic oil pan heaters. They put allot of heat into a small area and burn oil in the bottom of the oil pan and don't heat all the oil up that good. I live in Wisconsin where we see -35 in the winter and the best thing you can have is the factory style frost plug heater and a timer on the cord. My truck started out as a 83 with the "prone to cracking with block heater issue" when I drove it in the winter I would plug it into a timer to come on 2 hours before I had to start it to go to work always started never had a cracking issue neither did the original owner. You only need a couple hours a timer is a good investment. I since put a rust free 84 body on basically rebuilt the whole truck now has a 7.3 with a turbo a zf5 etc gets parked in the winter now. Next best thing to a freeze plug heater is a circulating tank heater that goes inline with the heater hoses I've had good luck with these. But by far the best thing is good batteries, cables, starter, glow plugs, fuel system. Ford/Navistar designed these to start at -15 or -20 not plugged in... Little tlc goes along ways

 

[silexis]

I've used the magnetic heaters, but usually on air compressors while framing houses in cold weather. They worked well for that purpose.
I have never HAD to plug in my truck to get it started even down to -15. It may take awhile, but I make sure all my glow plugs are working, run Rotella T6 5w-40 in the cold part of the year and keep the batteries in good shape. If I am home and it is zero or below, I plug it in, otherwise, I don't worry about it.
Sometimes it is pretty cold when I am out hunting or skiing, and there isn't anywhere to plug in a truck (unless you bring along a generator), I would be in trouble if I couldn't start the truck.
Colorado usually doesn't get that cold (rarely am I out in -25F). If I lived somewhere cold, I would get one of the diesel fired water heaters.

When I bought my truck, several hundreds miles away from my house and we stayed overnight in a motel. It was winter, cold and the truck had 4 bad glow plugs. Luckily, I planned brought a long extension cord that I ran out of the motel room window to the block heater. The truck would only start with a block heater at that time, changed the glowplugs, pump and injectors and have never had a problem since.

 

[ttman4]

Well WHAT EVER you do if it's plugged to 120V make darn sure your extension cord is big enough!!!!
I came within bout 3-5 min burning our house down 4-5 yr ago with us in it!!! It was kind'a like, "it ain't but 1000 W heater, this 100' 16 ga cord be big enough!!~"

Yeah right.....it was all rite all nite till little while fore I got up early & went out into the garage & garage was full of smoke, the wall plug was fried & bout 3" of flames burning out of it, sheetrock all toasty & black all up to ceiling......the 15 amp breaker didn't trip!!!

I gathered EVERY extension cord up smaller than 12ga & threw them away!!! Replaced all my breakers too!!!

 

[Diesel D]

I might be way off here, but have you considered keeping your vehicle parked in a nice insulated garage?.....

 

[SuperDave]

I'd like to see one of those heaters that go in the lower radiator hose installed, I have never seen it done and would like to see how it was done successfully. I have 2 6.9 engines that have dead heaters and one that is an early block and doesn't have a block heater at all so the heater in the lower hose seems the most viable option at this point. I also have not had much luck with the aftermarket replacement block heaters that go in the factory location, they don't ever seen to fit real well and usually end up leaking after a while

 

[u2slow]

I'd like to see one of those heaters that go in the lower radiator hose installed, I have never seen it done and would like to see how it was done successfully. I have 2 6.9 engines that have dead heaters and one that is an early block and doesn't have a block heater at all so the heater in the lower hose seems the most viable option at this point.

My primary thought with those... what sort of convection loops happens? What is the circ loop since the thermostat is closed?

If it still circs through the radiator, you'd probably want high wattage, and try to shield the radiator from wind.

 

[kpj]

Not in an IDI, but i have similar type of 1000W engine heater in my Crown Victoria than in this link https://www.vvkb.com/engine-heater/titan-p3-diesel-engine-preheater/. I installed it to a hose that goes to heater core and have been there for a three years now. It has built-in water pump, which makes a big difference for ones without it. I've had those too and they are very tricky to get the coolant circulating properly, but with built-in water pump engine heats faster and heat spreads better....

 

[nitroguy]

Not in an IDI, but i have similar type of 1000W engine heater in my Crown Victoria than in this link https://www.vvkb.com/engine-heater/titan-p3-diesel-engine-preheater/. I installed it to a hose that goes to heater core and have been there for a three years now. It has built-in water pump, which makes a big difference for ones without it. I've had those too and they are very tricky to get the coolant circulating properly, but with built-in water pump engine heats faster and heat spreads better....

This looks like it goes on the Heater hose, not Radiator Hose, is that correct? (or is this unit just that massive that the scale looks off?). If so, is that how you bypass the "radiator is still closed" issue?

 

[79jasper]

This looks like it goes on the Heater hose, not Radiator Hose, is that correct?

Read his post again. Lol

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

 

[Fredrickson]

I found a video of a guy with a powerstroke that was using a ceramic heater, then installs a 750 watt Kat Heater

If anyone is interested.. -->

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[u2slow]

Found one reference to a lower rad house heater on an IDI.

https://www.thedieselstop.com/threads/lower-radiator-hose-heater.292115/#post-2232282

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Not in an IDI, but i have similar type of 1000W engine heater in my Crown Victoria than in this link https://www.vvkb.com/engine-heater/titan-p3-diesel-engine-preheater/. I installed it to a hose that goes to heater core and have been there for a three years now. It has built-in water pump, which makes a big difference for ones without it. I've had those too and they are very tricky to get the coolant circulating properly, but with built-in water pump engine heats faster and heat spreads better....

I like this one. It looks like a very good solution.

 

[nitroguy]

Read his post again. Lol

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Hahahaha! Whoops.

 

[Darrell Martin]

I have not read all of these ideas and comments yet, I will get to them. But I did see a few questions.

1. Yes I live in Georgia and it does not get that cold here but, this thread is about the bus I have that is being turned into an RV, they are called Skoolies. I'm planning on traveling the US once it's done. So there will be cold states that I will be spending a month at a time in.

2. It has a 7.3idi engine. It however does not have a block heater installed.

3. I'm trying not to pull the block plug. That's why I was thinking that this would work as a replacement.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

2. It has a 7.3idi engine. It however does not have a block heater installed.

I'll bet that it's an International. From my experiences in the past, Internationals didn't have block heaters like the Fords did. Now I can understand why you're wanting one. If it was me, I'd be looking into the Titan P3 that was linked above. Assuming that it actually works, I think it would be better than the factory Ford block heaters since it circulates the heated coolant through the engine.