When I took delivery of my '05 Ram I had them enable the fast idle (very nice feature). When the service tech showed me how it worked he made the comment that "you'll use this alot because these things don't make heat in the cold." The first morning when I needed the heater I remembered his comment, and quicly learned he was right.

I love my truck, but I gotta say I don't like having to drive nearly 7 miles before I begin to feel any heat. When the outside temps dip below 10 degrees its common for me to run it on fast idle for 15 minutes (minimum), and still not have heat for the first 10 minutes of my drive.

Coolant level is correct. The engine will reach normal operating temp, but it just takes a while. Is this normal?

Any suggestions to help build heat into the engine during the winter?

 

Block the radiator with cardboard, and it probably wouldn't hurt to change out the thermostat. Be sure you get one from Cummins.

 

plug it in

 

Ideling in the cold isnt good - plug it in for 3 hours, and use a winter front like Wildbill suggested. You can also remove your fan for winter. That helps a lot.

Start the truck and let it idle for 30 seconds or so and then drive it. Start slow and keep it under 2k rpm. It will warm up. Its the nature of the beast.

An ESPAR heater is some of the best money you can spend on your truck:


http://www.espar.com/html/products/coolantheaters.html

 

Actually, don't remove the fan. The ECM controls the fan speed on the 3rd gens, you'll throw codes, sending the truck into limp mode.

 

that just the nature of the truck even letting mine high idle for 30mins before i got into it while i lived in AK it was still cold. what we did up there to take care of that is put a space heater inside the cab just make sure it is one that is surge protected and will shut off if it overheats or tips over so you dont get a fire

 

I did the cardboard thing and plugged mine in when I lived in wyoming, it worked a little, but to me when its -20 its gonna be cold no matter what you do...

 

Move to Texas!

 

Idle in N if you have not modded the VB......it won't circulate fluid in P.

 

Try to avoid idle- it produces a lot of condensation inside the engine, soot and neglectible heat.
An hour of idle runs you two or three gallons of fuel.
An engine heater needs less than a quarter of a gallon per hour and the truck is really hot inside the cab and the engine is warmed up to operating temperatures. That's cool.( no not cool- it's really warm!)


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