Well I know it's a little late in the season to be asking this, but after weathering my first winter with this mighty fine 12v, I got to thinking about block heaters. Belatedly though it might be.

It doesn't stay cold very long here in southern Texas, but the past month or two have seen some freezing point mornings. I start up the beast around 5 in the morning and let it warm up a good 15 or so minutes while I'm drinking my coffee and smoking that preemptive nicotine supplement to help cope with the inevitable upcoming traffic. Anyhoo, even after lettin the truck idle for 15 minutes, it still isn't up to operating temps by the time I hop up into the cab.

I've heard most diesels come with block heaters, but I don't know where they'd be, or if I even have one. Don't know if they're more of a regional option, of if all 96 12v's came with one stock or whatnot.

Anyhoo, to make a long story short, where would I look for this hopefully present block heater plug? I aint never seen it, putterin around the engine bay from above and below. Thanks!

 

look in the vicinity of the passenger side headlight

 

I've found if you use a high idle device of some sort, and bump the idle up to 1100 rpm or so, it will actually warm up enough to move the temperature gauge while idling.

 

Under the bumper, or in the engine compartment itself? And you just plug it in and it does it thing, or do you have to do something special like leave the keys in the acc or on position?

 

Good idea torque. Think I heard of someone saying that you can stick a stick under some lever or switch to up the idle. Any idea what that's all about?

 

mine is below the passenger side headlight, behind the grill.

 

Look between the turbo and oil filter for the connection. Then follow the cord.

 

Thanks. Sure I'll be able to find it now!

 

Right behind the grille, beside the headlight is a plastic clip that usually holds the end of the cord. Just plug it in and let it do its thing. I usually plug mine into a timer so it doesn't run all night. A couple hours before you start it is lots in your climate. Four hours is lots, even up here.

 

What I installed was a cable and **** to manually pull on the throttle linkage. It works awesome, was easy to install and it's one of my best mods yet. I simply mounted it under the dash, and hooked the cable to the linkage above the throttle pedal. On mine, you pull the **** out for coarse adjustment, then turn it for fine adjustment. Here's a link to one. I found it on another post.


http://www.awdirect.com/catalog.cfm?...ion&linkid=210

 

Thanks yall, found it. How do you know if it's doing it's thing?

Yeah I think I might do that mod. Thanks TF

 

to know if it's doing it's thing just pop the hood in the morning and feel the radiator hose. If it's warm it works.

 

Yep. Wait until the engine is cold, then plug it in. After about 5-10 seconds, if you listen closely, you should hear a faint gurgling/bubbling. That is the heater making noise, and is normal. Also plug it in when cold, wait a few hours, then feel the engine. Should be nice and warm. Also, you could use an ohmmeter, and measure the resistance. The heater element and cord should have about 18 ohms of resistance.

Heater specs :

Power - 750 Watts
Voltage required - 115 Volts AC (of course)
Current drawn - 6.5 Amps
Resistance - 17.7 Ohms

 

Awesome, good deal.

So would it be bad to plug it in right after you get home from work (engine warm), and leave it plugged in until the next morning?

How exactly does it work? Just constant cycling of the grid heater, or is there a heater element in the rad that justs keeps the coolant warm, or...?

 

Get a timer. A couple hours of runtime on the block heater is enough unless it's really cold out.

Works just like an electric hot water heater. 120vac element in the water jacket on the side of the block. The grid heaters have nothing to do with the block heater.