funny, with it being right around freezing here i still haven't plugged her in and it has taken me no more than one cycle and then she fires off on the second cycle. and i have warmth in 1/2 mile and hot heat in 1.5 miles. i just did a 195 deg dieselsite thermostat and that got my heat going real real fast. much quicker than before.

as for pluggin it in usually right around freezing and i have it on a timer for the usual 3 hrs before hand.

 

-15c is when I start to plug in if I am around a plug in,the last two winters I ran 0/40 and it started awesome this year I am running 10/30 and it has been -18c over night here so last night I figured I would plug in when I did the block heater cord shorted out and caught fire! so tonight it is getting down to -24c I borrowed a magnet heater from work put it on the oil pan hope it helps out.

 

My truck is garaged so I only plug it in for a little heat on the way to work (about 2.5 miles )

 

BRILLIANT!~!!

 

Apparently Oil weight has a lot to do with it.... I am going to be switching ot a 5 W40 or a 0W40 this weekend...

 

Yes it does I don,t know if you can get 0/40 anymore I can,t seem to find it I was fortunate the last couple of years at work when we moved locations the last tenant at our new shop left two 5g pails of it and I scooped it lol.

You probably will have to go with what Mad van suggested ,unless you can find 0/40.

By the way your truck starts the same as mine at those temps probably smells the same too LOL

 

I really cant tell if my truck had bad injector O rings because that is how it has started always when it would start with bad glow plugs, and I still have the rougher idle and the non loaded in neutral hesitation at 2600 RPM...

But I ddi end up replacing them.... And now it has not failed me yet except when the fuel gelled.

 

'95 4x4 5-speed with 157,000-ish miles, Stancor GPR, Mobil 1 TurboDiesel 5w40, Mobil 1 ATF in the ZF5, ZeroStart wraparound warmers on both batteries and a triple-tap short extension, so both battery warmers and the block heater all plug in from one plug poking out of the bumper. Aprx. 3 hrs on the timer, aprx. 5*F yesterday morning, outdoors on a snow-covered driveway, it started up like it was July. White smoke was gone within aprx. 30 seconds.

Only bummer is, the thermostat must be stuck open; it never gets past about N on the cr@ptastic gauge, and the EBPV stays open way too long.

 

I live in military housing and don't pay for electricity, so it gets plugged in every night. I don't have any starting problems and prefer to keep it that way. If you have one might as well use it...

 

Nice do your lights go dim in the house when you plug in LOL JK, sounds like a nice set up.

 

Fah, it's < 1200W, aprx. a hair dryer. Shoot, we run it off a generator when we go to our rustic cabin. Here's the cord to use; just the right length, and 12ga is plenty thick enough. You may also need a short (6-foot-ish) extension cord to plug the passenger-side battery warmer into, depending on the length of cord it comes with.

 

Passenger side battery warmer? I thought that was just a dummy blanket

 

These are warmers I installed. The typical wraparound type, made by ZeroStart.

 

If the truck has been sitting for a few days and it is -20 C, then I plug in for 3 hours and she starts instantly. I tried it once after sitting for a week and she wasn't too thrilled. I'm guessing she would have started but I let the batteries charge overnight and plugged the block heater in for almost exactly 3 hours the next day and she started instantly the next morning.

If I drove the day before I can start right up without plugging in even if it's -20 C.

Thermometer temp, not windchill.

My only problem is the damn cabin heat. I've got a wedge in the blend door lever until it gets warm enough outside to work on it !