Block heater Question??

[Albee]

Mornin all!! I just discovered that my block heater on my 02 Duramax quit working. I have read some posts on this and am wondering if the power cord plugs into the heater unit itself or is it hardwired to it? What is a common problem with these heaters? And can I access the heater from the bottom of the truck by removing the skid plate, or do I need to remove the fender well cover? I am hoping it may have just come unplugged if it is a plug in type at the heater. If I do find the power cord is the culprit, where can a person go buy a new cord? Does it have to be through the dealer? Appreciate your time.

[Albee]

Nevermind........Fixed it. Cord was bad at the plug. Heatin now. Laters.

[MaxACL]

Question... If the heater was bad, would it be covered under the 100,000 mile warranty?

Mike

[More Power]

For the benefit of everyone - The block heater is much like any other GM block heater used in the past 20 years or so. It is located in a front softplug on the passenger side of the engine block.

http://www.thedieselpage.com/images/dmaxblockheater.jpg

The heater cord is removable/replaceable. On a new truck, the cord is wrapped and tied back against a wiring harness against the fender well below/behind the airbox.

With temps of minus 28 last night, block heaters do come in handy!

MP

[Spartus]

Hey, how do we know if the thing is even working??? Should I have instant heat? When I start the engine my attitude says that the engine temp is the same as what it is outside... :confused:

[Idle_Chatter]

Spartus, it draws about 1500W. If I plug mine in without a timer, the garage lights dim and you can actually hear a little bit of a hiss in the engine compartment as the element begins to heat up. If I pull the plug while engaged, there's a nice blue spark at disconnect. If it's been plugged in for a while the head or heater hose should be noticably warm to the touch since it is a coolant immersion heater. There are plenty of clues that it is working.

[crafty]

At a farm show a few years back I bought a "block heater tester". I think it is likely just a circuit tester, two indicator lights that tell you if the circuit is good. I think the name of the company that sold it was "plugrite" or something like that. They were from Sudbury in Northern Ontario. This $20 plug attachment works quite well and I know at a glance that all is working. :D :D :D

On edit, here is the link to their web site.

http://www.citycourt.com/plugrite

They may have a booth at the show I'm going to next month.

[ 01-07-2004, 04:44 AM: Message edited by: crafty ]

[Greg McCall]

Hell, I haven't even found my plug yet.
So is it behind the air box ? Do you have to remove the air box to get to it ? I have crawled around every inch of my passenger side engine bay with a flashlight and can't find a chord.
Anyone ?

[Idle_Chatter]

Greg, you should find it folded up and wire tied right under the blue intercooler hose on the passenger side between the coolant expansion tank and the airbox. It's a black cord in black wire armor with a three-prong male plug capped with a black plastic cap. The cord will seem short. It goes into a shield just under the passenger head where it is taped. If you release the tape you can extract more wire moving forward along that loom and get enough cable to route the plug forward and down to the space between the bumper and grill or a tow hook hole (I have mine wire-tied to the passenger tow hook - pulls out for connection and tucks back in for travel).

[Lone Eagle]

Idle, Mine only pulls 7.5 amps on a 117 volt circuit for 878 watts. Later! Frank

[Kennedy]

Thought I heard it was a 1000 watt heater. Most heaters are 600w, which would definitely suffice here. When I ordered my heater for my 6.5 rebuild I had the option of 1000w, but passed as I run a 250w oil pan heater as my primary heater if I park outside. These days I've been parking inside whenever possible where the air is 62

[Kennedy]

Originally posted by Greg McCall:
Hell, I haven't even found my plug yet.
So is it behind the air box ? Do you have to remove the air box to get to it ? I have crawled around every inch of my passenger side engine bay with a flashlight and can't find a chord.
Anyone ? http://www.kennedydiesel.com/images/Block_Heater_cable_storage.jpg


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