Hey gentlemen! I've been stalking for awhile have never posted! I have recently purchased a 2012 F-250 Power Stroke, which as my name eludes to is a major upgrade! I am new to diesel so this forum has been a wealth of information. I live in North Pole, AK so I am already thinking winter!

The truck came with a block heater and the rapid heat system. My old truck had battery, block, oil pan, and transmission heaters on her. Do I need that stuff on a diesel or is it overkill? I is consistently -20 all winter up here and we usually have a few weeks of -40 or more. It is my new daily driver and it will get used everyday. Thanks for any help and all the great info on here!!

 

Howdy Neighbor.
You will need a form of insert for the grill, These trucks will not come up to operating temp and produce enouph heat for the heater.
If you bought the truck in Anch it wont have a pan heater, I went ahead and put one on mine, have not worried about tranny heater.
Mine is not a daily driver but, she starts at -50 with out issues, mine was always plugged in, there are couple guys on here in Canada that stated they have started theirs at -40 with out being plugged in, and do it al the time, to each his own.
I have a new in the box chrome grill insert thing for sale if you are interested, Watch EPICs grill removal vid, and its an easy removal, Vid was posted after I treid to remove mine in -25 and didnt want to break stuff, so went to Alaska Tent n Tarp and had cover installed. Bought insert @ Auto trim, call them in get price then I will make you a deal
If yours came with the Cont tires they Suck, was not happy with them at all.
I have to use my Cruise Control Alot, these things are not happy at speed limit, as I'm sure you have noticed, you can be doing 70 and feels like 45, stole my son's cobra radar detector, it has helped me more than once, lol.
Keith

 

The engine and transmission are designed to operate at their respective set-point temperatures. When they are not operating at set-point temperatures, wear and tear increases. So anything you can do to minize the operating time at below set-point, the better it is for the engine and transmission longevity. FWIW, I think that if I lived in your environmental conditions, I would do everything that is practical to pre-heat my $20k diesel engine before use! Probably the best way to achieve that would be to keep it parked in a heated garage, but I realize that's not always possible or practical!

Carl

 

Hey USCG! good to hear there are some FTE memebers up here! so it sounds like oil pan is must and and some sort of grill insert. I'm not going to lie; my old grey truck got a piece of cardboard behind the grill. The chrome inserts you have; are they the ones that go between the exsisting chrome slats on the front? If so, i am definitely interested. Can you leave those on year round?

Yeah I think it does have the continental tires on it. Oh well, I will wear em out and put something nice on there. You're not kidding about the speed I'm constantly looking down and seeing 15 over! I'll get back to you on the insert. Thanks for the good info!

 

I'm pretty sure you could leave the inserts in year round, and yes they fit in between slats, I thought about putting them on, but there is alot of chrome on the front of these things already, so kinda talked myself out of it.
I bought different tire's as soon as the snow started, and sold the Cont's in a couple days on criags list this spring.
There are a couple FTE members up here running around.

 

I would heat both pans. Definitely grill insert but don't run insert in warmer months if towing or will find it restricts cooling.

 

Just a note, the factory block heater actually warms the coolant, oil warming would be a secondary function and from what I have read you should not have anything to worry about aside from protecting your fuel and using a winter front.

 

I have been throwing around the idea of heating both pans just because she'll be outside most of time. I'm sure I can steel the garage from my wife every now and then! How long are you guys letting it warm up on cold mornings and does the auto start still work at -20?

 

I used my remote start at -20 several times last winter. Worked just fine and I don't have the engine block heater. So mine wasn't warm at all.

I also noticed that even after 30 minutes of 65 mph driving, My truck still went into high idle when I pulling up to a traffic light or parking lot. Meaning it still was trying to get up to operational temp. So I think the grill is a good choice in those temps

 

Even with full synthetic 0 w 40 oil, at -40 for many starts in a row heating the oil in the pan is advisable. One start at that temp on occasion with no heaters is no biggy, but doing it every day for a few weeks is not a good idea for the long term. If it were my truck that's what I would do. And I would put on timers to run atleast 4 hours before a start.