Mine is orange and I have the original Texas truck.

 

I have my block heater and a trickle charger under the hood wired together on a timer for 2 hours for cold winter mornings.

 

Anyway I have not needed it yet.... for some reason.

Maybe in the "Winter"


ps. we may get below 70*'s here...

 

On my 2000 The cord is in the well of the front bumper under the radiator and goes to a spot under the fuel filter. All have them installed from the factory.

 

From what I understand, block heater, intake air heater, and ebpv are standard on all 7.3s (part of the "Cold Weather Package"). Some trucks, however, were ordered with the cold weather package delete, and so came without any of those parts. I believe only the early 99s could be ordered with the cold weather delete.

6.0s, on the other hand, only come standard with block heaters if they're designated for cold weather states, like up north.

 

My understanding on the need for the heaters is that IH Diesels use the precombustion chamber design and this requires the preheat to help get combustion going unless the engine is near running temperature yet when you try to start it. Also Do not use a starting fluid on glow plug engines if you have cycle your glowplugs. The extra heat can burn the ends off of the glow plugs. I have seen this on construction equipment.