It got unusually cold here in Hampton Roads, VA last night. Down to 12 degrees where I am.( I know up north it is much colder but for around here thats unusual) I plugged in the block heater on my truck last night to make sure it would keep the coolant warm. When I went out to go check on it shortly before I left my Scangauge II said my coolant was 21 degrees. I had no choice but it start it at this point so I cycled the key a few times to make sure the glow plugs did a thorough job. I was greeted by an unhappy clanging for about 2 seconds and let the truck warm up to 115 degrees ( 20 min) before leaving. What should I look for to fix this before the next time it's cold out? There's overspray on the prongs for the heater too but I don't think that would do anything, correct?
Thanks

 

Over spray of what on the heater prongs? Are you running multi-vis oil in yours? We hit -6F last night.

 

I was about to post a similar question, we'll see if it gets answered here. My 6.0 block heater doesn't seem to heat much either, though it draws power to beat the band! Plugged in for four hours this morning after driving to work, and the temp needle barely lifted off the peg when I turned the key on.

 

The plug itself, the 3 metal electrical tips you "plug-in" to the extension cord. Could I lightly sand it off? I have Rotella 5W-40 oil in it. The only reason the coolant wasn't 12 degrees was that I drove the truck at night and I guess it didn't fully match the outside temp.

 

read a bit about this today, I'm going to check the resistance of the heater tonight. Looks like checking across the flat terminals should give you about 14-16 Ohms.

 

Good news for me, won't get cold enough to need the heater after tonight. I'll look at it tomorrow in the shop and see what I need to do. Might lightly sand the plug terminals on the truck to see if that makes a difference.

 

Your not far from my Mom in Williamsburg,clean the ends up with some sand paper and plug it in slowly and listen if you can hear a click or see a power surge from your lights,if not, use a meter and ck the ohms.It was -2 here in jersey this morning,not too bad.....if your a polar bear

 

I sanded all the overspray off of the terminals. It was coated pretty good with paint and not fun sitting outside for 25 min getting as much as I could off( the bumpers were repainted black recently). I didn't hear a click but I "may" have heard a spark when plugging it in. How loud is the click noise? I'm using an outside plug so seeing a surge would be hard.Only time will tell if that fixed it, hopefully it did so I don't have another rough start in the morning.

 

Well last night in Charlotte, NC we hit 6 degrees, I didn't plug in since I didn't have to work today, but this morning I plugged it in to get ready for tomorrow when I go to work. Well I turned to key to let my CTS show me my coolant reading before I plugged in. I was reading 28 coolant and 24 oil. I plugged in and after a few hours I checked by turning the key but not cranking, at that point I was showing 40 coolant and 28 oil, of course I know the heater only heats up the block. I know it's heating, since after plugging in I stick my head above the passenger tire close to the heater and I can hear the heater heating up the block. Well I went out to visit family using another vehicle, and for safety reasons since i don't have a timer I unplugged the heater. I had someone plug it back in about a hour before I got back around 240 pm, I got home around 330 pm, after I got some stuff in the house I decided to give the truck a crank and see how it did. Well I unplugged the heater turned the key and waited for my CTS for load up, it was showing 103 coolant and 75 oil, well cranked and yes I heard a little clanking while everything got circulated. I noticed the coolant went down to 88 then everything started to go back up on both.

Tonight there saying 10 degrees so after I drove around for about 2 hrs and had coolant between 190 to 186 and oil stayed between 186 to 191. When I got home I plugged back up, I know that usually after a few hours it holds a decent temperature even though the heater doesn't have a thermostat, but I'll find out in the morning how well everything ran. While I've had the heater plugged up I checked the amps using my clamp meter and I was only pulling around 8.7 to 8.9 amps

 

I got home around 4 today and the coolant only reached 174 degrees and plugged it in at 9:30. I won't start it till around 8 AM before I leave so I'll check the temp before I start it and see if it works. When I plugged it in I saw a spark through the clear extension cord end. How loud is the heater?

 

The temp gage won't read anything. This am my block was 60 with a -5 ambient temp.

 

You can't hear the heater. Its just an element in the block. The only thing I typically hear is the click from the spark when I plug it in.

 

Thanks for the info. I had expected better performance from a block heater based on how well the one in my fathers 04 Dodge worked, warm air from the heater at start up in the winter. Though even wo that much heat, having the coolant at 60 vs. -5 is a big improvement. Re: hearing your block heater. I can tell when I plug mine in, if it's quiet I can hear what sounds like a hiss for a few seconds. I assume that's the heater steaming the coolant immediatly around it. I think I'm going to replace my plug/wire assy, I ohmed it last night at 15 ohms but the plug itself will sometimes get hot, other times not.

 

After sanding the terminals last night, the truck was at 91 degrees this morning. Couldn't believe that fixed it but it did. Thanks for the help everyone