Block heater

Most Fire departments in Michigan do not use block heaters because they are kept in a climate controlled building. The electrical cords you see connected to the truck's are to keep the batteries up to a full charge.

Years ago. (like 40) My Dad bought a Diesel Tractor.. i installed a block heater (one of the kind that heats the coolant) and he used it... Dang thing worked, When you fired that sucker up the temp gauge went to the top, then came DOWN as the engine cooled off.. I'm serious.

Advantage was if the thing tried to overheat the engine thermostat opened and let the radiator radiate.

The cost of operation however turned out to be high if used 24x7 (Fire Departments need to be able to "Drop and run" at an instant's notice so they need to keep ;em on 24x7

Thus he went to plugging in about 2 hours before use

And that worked very well.

I only drove that tractor once.. Dang thing worked well (Brother usually drove it or Dad). I drove other tractors though.

wolfe10 wrote:
If you are talking about an hour or two before starting in low temperatures, YES.

If you are talking about leaving it on 24/7, NO. You would use a lot of electricity!

Agree. I have a timer that I set to have it turn on the pre heat about 5 AM on a departure day.

Agree. If under 50 degrees F, the block heater on for 30 minutes is a good idea, particularly with free electricity. Necessary, NO, but speeds warm-up which is always a good thing.

Said another way, an engine warming up from 50 degrees to 180 degrees takes longer than from 100 degrees to 180 degrees.

The lower the temperature the more it helps and the longer you may want the heater on before starting. But, unless it is below freezing, an hour should be enough.

Block heaters do help a lot even in warmer temperatures. We had a twin Detroit 6/71 38' boat parked at a Los Angeles marina. There was nothing wrong with the the fuel system but the cold start up at any temp was pretty nasty. The restaurant which was located at the end of our access dock finally complained enough that the marina contacted us about cleaning up the starting or moving the boat to a different slip. Giving up a prime slip was out of the question. The installation of block heaters, used even in 70 degree weather, made all the difference in the world. We were even offered free Sunday brunches by the restaurant for cooperating. Block heaters will help lessen cylinder wall wash and dirty start up even at warmer temps.
Randy
p.s. Slip fees included electricity so the heaters were a no brainer.

In storage, no. The block heater is only for the purpose of making the engine easy to start in cold weather. There is no good purpose served keeping it on continuously for an engine being stored. If you decide to go start that engine in cold weather, turn on the block heater a couple hours in advance. Otherwise, leave it off.

Last time I drove in winter in N Dakota and Michigan, I had impression that all parked cars there are plugged in.
Funny that at -20F no gas station had winter blend diesel.

Hi,

Plug in for 3 to 4 hours. After 4 hours the heat loss will be steady state and the block won't get any warmer.

Diesel engines will start in very cold temperatures. The heater may make them a little easier to start, but the pay off for heaters come in fleet operations with engines that get far more use than our RV's. The savings is in longevity. A cold start is very hard on wear for pistons and liners and there have been studies that indicate a savings by having"warm" starts rather than cold.. winter in Alaska might be different.

I've never plugged mine in. Started OK in temps into the teens but needed to use the boost switch. I now occasionally use the AquaHot to preheat the engine and that helps a lot.