Engine/Transmission (1994 - 1998) block heater doesnt get real hot?

[TLanier]

plugged my block heater in for the first time since i bought the truck the other day. left it plugged for 3 hrs. it warmed the block to the touch, but not hot by any means, and i didnt notice the water temp gauge come up any faster than it did without the heater. is it broken?



my neighbor with a furd 7. 3 says his heats his block up so hot the whole garage gets warm. all i need is to hear more lip from him. :{

 

[KDillard]

the reason the fords get so warm is because they need the assistance to start the truck. The cummins uses good old compression to start with warm are from heater grids. Fords use glowplugs to help ignite the fuel.

 

[TLanier]

well, i realized that the fords rely on glow plugs, and cummins' do not, but use the heater grids. i am just asking if the plug in block heater is supposed to get hot, or just warm. and if it just gets warm, and the water temp gauge takes just as long to heat up as without the block heater pre-heat, then what is the point of using it..... why is is there?

 

[JFaughn]

It might be that your extesion cord is too long , or maybe the cord in the truck is getting bad , measure the voltage at your source then at truck and see how much voltage loss there is , then unplug the heater cord at block to see any loss . then if you can find the resistance for the heater measure it.

 

[bmoeller]

the reason the fords get so warm is because they need the assistance to start the truck. The cummins uses good old compression to start with warm are from heater grids. Fords use glowplugs to help ignite the fuel.

Incorrect. The glow plugs serve the same purpose as the grid heaters do on he Cummins. They heat the incoming air as well. Other than that, don't help ignite the fuel. They don't act like spark plugs do. When fuel does manage to hit the GPs from dirty or bad injectors, they burn up. Been there, done that.



The Ford diesels do warm the engine better than the one on the Cummins engines. My block heater on the Ford (6. 9L) can melt ice on the windshield, or at least make it easy to scrape off. The Ram won't. I think the one on the Ford is a higher wattage heater. Also, the Cummins seems to be better at rejecting heat.



The heater should have the engine warm to the touch, but it won't be enoough to move the needle off the peg.

 

[TLanier]

thanks bmoeller. it is warm to the touch. thats what i wanted to know.



cheers