I don't have anywhere to plug in my truck this winter. It's a 2001 F-450 Cube truck, and the city says I can't park it at my house. I had to rent a space at the storage and there's no outlets.

I have new plugs, new stancor relay, new batteries, new starter, and I'm gonna switch to synthetic oil asap. But even if I can start it on a cold morning, I don't want to think of the abuse this is putting on the engine.

My plan is to get a generator, and stow it in the back of the truck. When I need the truck, I can start the generator and run the block heater for a bit while I do whatever.

I can get a Chinese made 3500w generator for $250. It's not much more than an 1800watt, and the extra power will come in handy if we ever have a power failure.

I figure if I have that much power, why not add another block heater, for those really cold mornings. They sell block heaters that are magnetic, you can just stick them on the motor somewhere. I need to know where. Could I just stick it to the bottom of the oilpan, and once I have the truck going, pull it off of there. Are they supposed to heat the oil or the coolant? How does this work exactly? Is this a good idea? Is there a better spot, maybe for a permanent install? I did a search, but all I found was a duramax thread and they're talking about welding brackets. I don't have money or skills to be doing any of that right now. Just need a fix.

Thanks.

 

The stock heater heats up the coolent. I would do as you said and stick it on the oil pan. I think the stock heater uses 1,000 w.

 

Your idea may well work, but, if you have the budget for it, an Espar or Webasto fuel fired coolant heater is the way to fly. Not cheap, but they will outperform an electric element any day of the week and run on 12V and fuel.

 

How cold does it get at your place? You make it sound like you live in the middle of the arctic ocean... Just start it normal... You replaced the batt's, gp's, relay, and starter. Use them. Cycle the glow plugs a few times through if you need to and start that bad mamajama like it was made for...

 

Agreed....let me add when its cold,the GPs stay hot 1.5/2 mins after the wts light goes out...

 

I think you would be much better off just investing in some preventative maintenance and making sure you have good synthetic oil, coolant is good, GPR is good, Glow Plugs are good, Batteries are good, starter is good, alternator is good.

It takes at least an hour, 2 really for the block heater to take full effect, ad that's at 1,000 watts. IMHO you are going to waste money with the generator, let alone it's just more money for upkeep, and the possible theft issue.

 

Stick-on magnetic heaters are not more than about 200 watts - not enough for a 7.3. I would add a tank-style engine heater, because they circulate coolant and can be had in up to 1000 watt varieties. Most of all, put synthetic 5w-40 oil in it!

 

I already have a block heater. I just want to give it a little more, so it will warm up faster and I don't have to sit there with the generator running for two hours on those really cold mornings.

I don't want to start cutting into the radiator hoses either. I don't have a garage, or the time to do a lot of work on my truck right now.


My only priority is being able to start my truck in the cold. I can't afford to lose customers because my truck doesn't want to go. And I'd rather spend 20-30 minutes fooling around under the truck every morning than put my truck through the abuse of a cold start.


I'm looking at getting 3 or 4 of these little heaters. And spreading them out along the bottom and sides of the oilpan. I say the oil pan, because I figure the heat will rise and warm the rest of the block, and warming the oil will help lubricate the engine faster and reduce wear from cold starts.



Would a 400F heating element applied to the oil pan damage the engine? Are there other places that are suitable and would give better results?

Thank you.

 

I put a 1500 watt heater on first F250 and man it would heat! Trouble was kept wanting to blow the breaker in the garage!! Turns out when I put in a new GPR that puppy started like summer time!!

Smokie

 

If you really need extra heat here is a trick we use on Class 8 OTR trucks. Use a tarp, ply wood or cardboard to close off both sides and front of the truck up to the body and stick a 200,000 btu forced air heater under the rear. This heats everything and the hot air exits through the radiator heating the coolant. Now you have warm trans fluid, fuel, and unfrozen brakes.

They tried the commercial truck at home thing here too. Enough people threatened to move there business out of city limits and it got dropped pretty quick. Now it only applies if you didn't EVERY have a truck at home before the law.

 

Where are you located?

These trucks will start after sitting in the low teens at night not plugged in. It'll smoke for a while and run rough, but after 5 minutes its running normal and a few more minutes you can drive off.

 

I have cold started at -25*F without issue.

 

If everything is up to snuff......GPR,Glow plugs, Batts,oil.... and you don't live North of Alaska..... you are going for over kill.

If you think that you will have trouble starting your truck, then fix what may pull it down and stop worrying.

Maybe get a solar cell batt charger to plug in your power plug to keep the batts in top shape.

The rest seems overkill to the exstreme.

 

Did couple times when truck in up North with no power and it went down 30oF in May that was worst thing I could was close to light truck on fire. I could start but didn't want BURNT up $200 Starter from crank for many times.

But end I use Torch and heat on passenger's block near exhaust manifold. heat that for like 2 mins then try start it fired up and running. That when it had 2 bad injectors and 5 bad glow plugs. Now it will start itself up to 28oF with double cycle on glow plugs wait for 30 seconds.


For now I keep torch with me cause I work 50 miles away from home and plow snow so I can't risk if truck won't start and go home.

 

Forgot to add. Those engine will start easily if temp is 30oF and it been sit less than 8 hours.

So I think you able keep engine warmer if you put blanket or something to keep heat inside last longer.