In the 14 years I've owned my truck I have never used the block heater. I'm going to be driving into the colder climate maybe mid 20's low 30' at night. When temp do you plug in your block heater? I'm thinking of putting it on a timer so it will be on for about 4 hours before I am ready to go...

 

really shouldn’t need it at all at those temps; doesn’t hurt to use it, but don’t really need to. more important to make sure your fuel is winterized and your batteries are good.

 

I generally plug mine in if it is supposed to be below 32F. It starts fine without it, but takes forever to warm up and blow anything but cold air.

 

Same reason as ArmyLifer, but at 34* forecast. I've let it high idle 15 minutes in the driveway before and come back out to no heat, scrape the ice, drive a few blocks and it starts to defog

 

If your glow plug system and batteries are up to the task, you don't need to use the block heater. If you want to use the block heater because you want to, there is nothing wrong with that. I would highly recommend you test the functionality of it first before heading out. Before you plug it in, get under the truck to look for any damage to the 120v wire to the heater coil itself. If everything looks good, plug it in and check on it immediately following plugging it in for any anomalies.

Give it 10 - 15 minutes and check to see if you can hear the coil heating the coolant. If you cannot, put your hand near the coil port on the block and see if you can feel a temperature difference. If it works and there were no issues with the wiring, you are all set.

I sometimes use mine when in the northwest visiting family when the temperature dips into the teens or below zero. This does not happen often though as we attempt to plan our trips in the summer time and try not to be in the mountains (CO, WA, ID, MT, UT) in the fall or winter.

If you do need a new wire, I bought this one in January of 2018 and it works well. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also made accessing the wire easier by installing a port, which I have linked here. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I installed another port just like that one on the passenger side for the onboard battery tender, but none of that may be required for you. Let us know if you have any further questions or concerns and we will be glad to help you out with them. This is a great community of people always looking to help out where they are able to.

 

I'll just add a couple of things to the above. You should be able to hear the water 'sizzle' pretty soon after you plug the heater in and you should get a good arc at the plug when you push the two ends together. I don't know if it's relevant with ours but years ago on my heavy truck it was advised to unplug the heater before startup as the rush of cold water can break the hot coil.

 

Throwing in my .02c. I'm from a cold Climate (Alaska) and have alot of experience getting these things started in the cold.

If everything is working good mid 20's low is no problem. If your high is also mid 20's you should probably plug in.

In my experience the highs and lows weren't much different, so there wasn't much warming in the day.
Having said that, my rule of thumb was to use a 4 hour timer if it was going to be below freezing.
If it was going to be below 20 I would plug in all night.

Before you count on your block heater to work make sure it does.
You can measure resistance between the main prongs to get an idea. I think somewhere between 3-8 ohms is normal.
0 ohms or infinite ohms is an open or short, and something is wrong.

Before you venture into cold territory, make sure your glow plugs work and your batteries are good and have good connections.
Quick easy check for your glow plugs is a voltage check on a cold start. Doesn't have to be that cold... first start in the morning will probably do it.
Get a voltmeter, it can hook to your batteries, cig lighter, obdii, whatever. As long as it reacts in less that 10 seconds.
Monitor voltage when turning key to 'run' position. Static resting voltage should be 12.3-12.6v.
When Glow plugs are energized that should drop to below 11.5v. Mine usually drops to 10.8v.
The voltage drop indicates load (or resistance, but we all have clean and tight battery connections so thats not an issue)
Load indicates the glow plugs are doing something. It doesn't indicate all of them are working, but it tells you that some are and the system is functioning.

Since I left Alaska I have installed a high torque starter, and rarely plug in anymore. I also began using 5w40 full time, as opposed to seasonally.
My truck also regularly sits for weeks and no longer has romps or hard starts.

 

In my limited cold weather experience thus far with my 7.3, I agree with all the above stated...had no problem starting the truck in low mid 20's with low/mid teens for wind chill. Now warming up so de-ice windows, whole different story. Plugging mine in didn't change the starting at all, but it did "warm up" much quicker.

 

Block heater is 1000 Watts.

Plugging in all night is a waste of electricity until well below 0*. At 30* an hour is enough to expedite starting and heat in the cab.

Size any timer and extension cord according to the load do you don’t burn your house down.

These trucks are designed to start down to -10* without plugging in. But, the HEUI system will make the truck sound TERRIBLE and run rough in cold weather. If you do not plug in, letting the truck ‘warm up’ for awhile before driving is a good idea. Driving ‘easy’/slow for the first few miles is the fastest way to warm the engine.

I strongly recommend a real Denso starter for anyone who lives in the cold. These massive +5hp starters will crank these engines over with ease in cold weather and use less amps doing it. Also, you can DIY rebuild it forever - but don’t plan on getting good at it / this is literally the most robust starter available for this application.

 

Kbeefy brought up a good point about testing the block heater element. I have pasted the test from the Ford Service Manual below from section 303-03 Engine Cooling Diagnosis and Testing. This can be accomplished if the visual and/or auditory tests I and a couple of others mentioned above are not conclusive.

 

Huge waste of Electricity if block heater is plugged in (on) more than two hours before you need to start the truck.
Have a heavy duty timer to turn on a couple of hours before you need it. A cheap timer and you are asking for trouble.

 

I plug in my truck when its cold outside, not extreme cold like some of you guys, but if I turn on my defroster and fan on my windshield is ice free and starts easy. Timer or not I can afford the electric. I have 466k on the clock and every 7k or so i use Rotella t6 syn and red top Optimas.

 

I use mine sometimes but usually don’t plug it in for more than a couple hours prior to starting just to help it out a bit. It takes way longer than that to reach maximum temperature but uses a lot of electricity to leave it plugged in all night. I have started the engine down to 0*F or thereabouts without any trouble without plugging in.

 

 

was that van actually sold new in Finland or did you buy it somewhere else?