You mean one of these?

 

something of that sort yes

 

Just go the high dollar route... Heated garage. Ow baby! Nice and warm.

 

im on top of this option.i wont have much trouble warming her up when desired either.


but it's got to be a pretty good size shop lol.

 

It was a little warmer today, which was only 28 degrees. So it was just under 10 minutes before the air started to get warm. and almost 20 minutes before It was comfortable temperature inside the cab.

Picked up a thermostat today so I'll change that tomorrow and check out the hoses going to the heater box.

 

Well, it looks like I got it fixed. Changed the thermostat, and after idling for 5 minutes it was blowing out hot air.

And I did still check the inlet and outlet hoses for the heater core and they were both really warm.


Thanks for the help guys.

It's going to happen one day.
My Dad and I have talked about building one for a few years, but the horse barn had to come first.

 

cardboard in front of grill or in front of a/c condenser. you need to leave some space for air, so you won't over heat.
use a block heater and or park inside to get a heat start on heat.
higher temp thermostat 195-198'f
if you have a/c, unplug the 12v wire from your a/c compresser. as you will have a/c running with defrost. (cleans the windshield better/takes longer to heat up the air).
if nothing else works, flush the heater core. you may not be getting good heat transfer

 

Another trick I saw around here somewhere was adding a switch and vacuum solenoid to the flapper door under the hood for the MAX A/C. Turn on the switch in the cab, and the door closes, for recirculating air on all settings on a 92-96 truck.

For winter (or if the A/C doesn't work), a guy could just zip-tie it closed.

 

I see where you are coming from ArdWrknTrk, but I believe it's a more complex issue than simply whether or not the thermostat has opened yet.

No, windchill does not effect inanimate objects, BUT flowing air will cool down, or speed the cooling down of an inanimate object to the point of ambient temperatures. (just not below, as in windchill)

Put simply, flowing air attempts to keep things at ambient temperature. An air cooled engine is a good example.

A cold engine that has begun propelling a vehicle down the road has to fight to overcome the air whipping over the motors exterior surfaces. The wind is attempting to keep the engine block at ambient temperatures, while the combustion and friction inside the block attempt to warm it above ambient from the inside out. Wouldn't blocking some of the the wind keep the ambient temp air from air-cooling the block? Speeding warmup?

Now the vehicle is several miles down the road and the thermostat has just started to crack open. Same situation, wouldn't blocking some of the wind let the fluid in the radiator warm up faster because its not dealing with as much air attempting to keep it a ambient temperature?

The result is you reach full operating temp "faster" due to disallowing the physics of air flow cooling. Cheers!

 

All valid points, Leroy. Good things to consider.

 

Heated or even non heated garages is the WORST thing for a snow covered vehicle in the winter

 

How so?

 

A physicist you are not.
"Ambient air" is not a condition known to any thermodynamicist either...
You are talking about convection.
This only affects the surface of an object, not the coolant passages deep inside.
You also misunderstand how a thermostat throttles coolant flow to keep the block at a steady temperature. (why do people insist on thinking of it as a switch? )

No, I don't agree at all.
But I am comfortable in my knowledge and can simply agree to disagree.

The heater loop will always reach the set point before the thermostat opens.
The thermostat will always throttle coolant to maintain that set point. (at the water neck)
The radiator's sole purpose is to shed excess heat, let past the thermostat.
In incredibly cold temperatures this can cause some cycling before an equilibrium is reached.

 

Just wanted to throw this in.. i am in no way of much knowledge to how this cooling all works together. But i work up in the oil patch of northern Alberta and all we run is F350 diesels. We had delivery of two new trucks a month ago and being new they had no winter fronts on them. There was a definite difference in warming up time, temps while driving down the highway, and mostly the difference in temps while the trucks are on fast idle at the job site for hours on end. Once the new winter fronts were put on, big difference.

Where i live is southern B.C and have no reason to use them here as temps are mild. (comparable to Seattle climate) And our big trucks (Kenworths) all have winter fronts on also, but i am not sure if there is the same setup as a pickup.

 

Winter fronts are a lot different than putting a piece of cardboard on the radiator and effectively reducing the size of the core.
The whole radiator is still available for cooling, but blocking some or most of the wind keeps the temperature differential from being so extreme.

Up there is where you learn that -40* is the only temp the same in both Fahrenheit and Celsius.

There is no such thing as 'cold', just an absence of heat.
Conduction, convection and radiation are the three modes of heat transfer.
A radiator would more accurately be called a convector, as it sheds heat from its surface into the airstream.