block heater help

[baddiesel]

it's to cold for my truck to start today (bad glows) so i figure i would plug it in for a couple hours, i've never pluged it in before i grab a cord plug it in and it sounds like something boiling or burning from near the oil pan i unplug it goes away plug it again and it starts to make the sound again is this normal or is it burning up

[melbyfarms]

it is normal for the block heater to sound like that

[DennisG01]

yup - perfectly normal. It's just like the sound you'd hear when an electric hot water heater is operating.

[JSteward]

I can't hear anything on mine... In fact, it is very hard to start on cold mornings even after being plugged in all night. Whats an easy way to tell if its working? Can I touch a place and feel warmth? My temp gauge shows nothing when I turn the key.


Thanks.

[rabt]

I can feel anywhere on the motor and tell that mine is working, very warm compared to everything else. Prolly the warmest place is the coolant cross-over.

[Truckie117]

you can also check with an omh meter no resittance = bad heater or the plug has come off you have to look under the truck just above the oil filter mine was brigth orange.

[DennisG01]

Michael had a good idea - it's easy to check that. Start with the plug - just touch each lead from your meter to the contacts (not the ground). You should get close to 0 for resistance - if it's infinity (alot of resistance/high number) then something's bad. It could just be the cord - typically that is what fails on these setups - the cord breaks inside from constantly being moved around. Move the cord around while you're measuring and see if the value changes much.
The next steps would be to check the cord itself and then check the actual heater and check for resistance there. IIRC, the plug end just pulls off the heater.

[moody]

that is also a common fault with some block heaters. the cord gets pulled off the heater and you keep pluging in the cord but nothing happens.
saddly did that all one winter to a small ford car(sad part was I had to drive a small ford car.)

[xtrempickup]

yea if its working you can feel the difference in the engine compartment, its warm, not stone cold. i replaced 7 of 8 glow plugs yesterday, 1 cycle and i'm up and running unlike before with all bad ones I had to plug it in to get it to start on a cold day

[sailun]

Check the house circuit for power. When my GP controller went, it would blow the circuit breaker in the house.

[JohnC]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I think fixing the glow plugs would be much more productive than fixing the block heater...

[sailun]

Ooops, I meant block heater blew circuit breaker in the house, not GP controller. Getting all the repairs mixed up.

[jmpidgeo]

yeah, i can't hear anything on mine either. which components of the motor will be warm...the entire engine or what?

[DennisG01]

It's heating up the coolant in the block (block heater). Eventually other components will warm up by contact, somewhat. But the block and the cooling system, mainly. I don't, but some people also use an oil pan heater. They're not real expensive and they just stick onto the bottom of the oil pan - kinda like an electric blanket.