my drive to work is only 6.5 miles and my truck is NOT in my garage. a couple of weeks ago i put the mopar cold weather cover on the front and have all 4 flaps open. my engine now gets to 190* on my way to work. with the cold weather cover, should i still use the engine heater with colder weather coming? should i run it 2, 4, or XX hours before i leave? i have an outdoor timer that i plan to use. should the heater only be used below a certain temperature?

i know, newbie diesel owner questions. thanks for any advice.

 

All your doing with the block heater is warming the water in the block so it won't hurt anything to plug it in and use the front. The closer to normal operating temp you keep it the better. I have my timer set to kick on about 3 hours before I leave for work and it works well. LCH

 

For a 6 mile run to work, Id run all 4 flaps closed. 3+ hours on the block heater, Use it at 32 degrees

 

i set the timer to run the heater for 2 hours this morning and it didn't seem to heat up any faster. i have it set to run 4 hours tonight. is there a way to check if the block heater is actually working?

 

Plug it in, without the timer, and you'll hear it start to "percolate" if you put your head near the top of either front tire.

Even having it on for 2 hours, you should have noticed the wait to start light go off sooner than normal.

 

You should be able to here it for 5-10 seconds, if you listen closely, and after a couple of hours, the steel elbow fitting (thermostat housing) should get warm. It has a 2'' hose that goes back into the top of the rad.

 

Yup, mine sounds like an old coffee maker!

 

The block heater might not help the engine to heat up faster, it does however make start up a lot easier in frigid temps and that is the main purpose of the block heater.