I don't know about you guys but I have trouble with my 98' cummins starting in the winter. Anything below 20 F. Plugging it in helps alot though. But i take it to school in the winter and the dumb school wont let me plug it in. When it sets out there all day in the cold it can be pretty dang hard to start after school. My question is, is that my dad has a 04 dodge cummins and it will start VERY good in below 0 F levels and runs like a champ when it fires off. I think what i herd is that my 98' uses a heat fan and heats the fuel and dads uses glow plugs. is there a way to put glow plugs on my 98'?

 

cummins uses a grid heater that heats the air in the intake manifold ... there are no glow plugs on a cummins. sounds to me like your grid heater is not working.

 

how much is a good grid heater, and where can you find one?

 

You already have a grid heater...

 

Does your volt gauge cycle up and down several times for a couple minutes after a cold start? If so, then your grid heaters are probably working. Is your Dad's truck a 4.5/commonrail? If so, it has much more precisely controlled injection/timing, enabling easier cold starting even without the block heater down into negative numbers.

 

12V's do not like the cold at all (at least mine doesnt)...

After making sure your grid heaters are working properly, the only real option here is an Espar or Webasto hydronic coolant heater. These little beauties heat and circulate coolant through the engine and also into the cab to defrost the windows if you get it with the right extras.


ESPAR - Technology - Coolant Heater

Webasto - BlueHeat® Main

http://www.webasto.us/am/en/am_auto_heaters.html


Getting one of these will eliminate your cold start issues but they are over a thousand bucks.

 

The 1st Gen VE-pumped engines hane no problem starting in very cold temps. I believe it has something to do with the different advance mechanism between the P-pump and VE rotary pump on the 1st Gens. Before I removed the grids from my 1st Gen it started reliably without the block heater at -20 with one 850cca battery. It starts normally (one flick of the key) without the grids now down to a little below freezing, and will start within two or three revolutions below that to some point. I removed the grids in favor of a spacer that houses W/M nozzles. I drive something else if it's getting any colder than that because I don't like the way it handles in the snow.

 

with the grid heater workinig it should start in cold weather, before I took mine out it didnt matter if there was 1ft of snow on the ground or 90* and sunny it started and ran fine. after takeing the heater out the truck still started in 19* weather was not pretty but she started

 

i never had a problem with my 91 starting in cold weather. i would say your grid heater is not working. im sure if you are in a very cold climate they will buck some but atleast down to zero my always started.