My truck doesn't have a block heater in it right now and never has. I found a couple on ebay for about $75 (that's the element and the cord)! pretty damn good price compared to the dealerjip. they want 250 for theirs! anyways, my truck is very hard to start in the mornings. I live in NW Indiana and its been rather cold as of late. I don't want to damage anything in the motor doing a cold start, plus its sounds like hell once it actually cranks over...my question is: do you have to pull the motor to put in a block heater? heard from someone that the freeze plug is right next to the motor mount? also, any fuel or crankcase additive I could use to aid in easier starting? any help is much appreciated! thanks!

 

The heater should be kind of on the oil filter housing. You should be able to get to it. I've had to replace the cord & that's easy running the cord too.

 

Alright, sounds simple enough. I was just worried with possibly having to pull the motor just for a block heater! also, I'm running 20w50 oil, could I run something lighter to make for easier starting? Possibly a rotella synthetic? What's the lightest y'all recommend? Thanks for the input by the way!

 

15w-40 is what your supposed to run. No wonder its having troubles starting. You can also run a 5W-40 full synthetic in winter to make it start a lot easier

 

Lol whoops well that explains some of the problem! I will go pick up some of that oil tomorrow and change it out! Thanks! Just ordered the block heater as well. Should make a world of difference! Thanks for the help buddy, much appreciated

 

just a heads up...best to drain the antifreeze before attemting this fix...after the drain....gently ease the frost plug out and have a bucket to catch the coolant in the block...just get it leaking a little bit...let it drain...conversely you kin just pop the frost plug out and get a green shower and have to cleanup/buy coolant...hth



mojo