Block heater question
Thread Starter
|
Posting Guru
Joined: Jun 1999
Posts: 1,083
Likes: 1
Block heater question
Okay, hosers, for all you in the great white north...today I noticed what I think is a block heater on the passenger side of my 69 F250 with 360 V-8. It was a Colorado truck, but now lives/runs in Tejas...see my gallery and garage for pix of the truck. The plug-in cord is wrapped around the horn, and the cord drops down to a cannister-lookin' thing-a-majig about the size of a charcoal canister on later vehicles. A heater hose comes from the cannister up to one heater hose and another hose from the canister disappears under the truck...like it goes to the oil pan or somewhere else down there. So, if I get brave enough to actually plug it in...how do I know it's working? Does it get warm or humm or something? Don't want to burn the F250 down in the driveway...never had or seen one of these before, so it's a while elephant to me.
Cargo Master
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 3,008
Likes: 250
From: North Pole, Alaska
It isn't a block heater. It is a canister heater that is plumbed into a heater hose to preheat the antifreeze. I would just take it out and replace the hose. A block heater is one that replaces one of the freeze plugs in the engine block. For Fairbanks, AK, you definitely a block heater, but not one for TX.
Thread Starter
|
Posting Guru
Joined: Jun 1999
Posts: 1,083
Likes: 1
Okay, thanks. Another dumb question...I can pull the Y out of the heater hose that the canister plumbs into, but what about the bottom hose that runs from the canister to somewhere down on the engine...how do I cap that off after I pull that hose? Or do you mean pull the canister and connect the bottom engine hose to the Y that goes to the top hose? I've never lived in the cold climates, so this is all new to me.
Posting Guru
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,761
Likes: 1
From: Bethel,Ak
The fitting that goes into the block is the supply for the tank heater.
You can take it off and replace with a plug.
Which is a pipe thread if i remember right.
The plastic y can be taken out and the hose replaced.
You should hear the tank heater start working darn near immediately after plugging it in.Also can feel the hose to see if it gets hot.
Have a tank heater on my 68 in MT.
They work very well.
You can take it off and replace with a plug.
Which is a pipe thread if i remember right.
The plastic y can be taken out and the hose replaced.
You should hear the tank heater start working darn near immediately after plugging it in.Also can feel the hose to see if it gets hot.
Have a tank heater on my 68 in MT.
They work very well.
Thread Starter
|
Posting Guru
Joined: Jun 1999
Posts: 1,083
Likes: 1
Thanks guys...might get brave enough today to plug it in and see if it smokes or runs. Taking it out of the system will have to wait awhile, until I have time to get under there and see what kind of fitting/plug I need. Don't reckon I'll need a heater here in Tejas, but if it runs I'll just replace the hoses and leave it on the truck until I can test it this coming winter.
