Surprised how much block heater helps starting diesel

[East30]

Next you guys are going to claim you have some of that white stuff. We have it out here up in the mountains where it belongs.
View attachment 685944 View attachment 685945

Never close to that. I would like to experience it. Once.

 

[SylvainG]

I've connected my block heater to a wifi smart switch (TOPGREENER Smart Mini Wi-Fi Plug with Energy Monitoring). It specs says it can go down to 0C but the chip inside will take -20C by the manufacturer's specs. That way, I can start the block heater without even stepping outside, and even from home before even leaving for the cottage. It does require to connect to a cloud in China, but with a bit of computer knowledge, you can 'flash' a new firmware on it (Tasmota) which disconnects it from that cloud and have full control locally.

 

[goeduck]

It does require to connect to a cloud in China, but with a bit of computer knowledge, you can 'flash' a new firmware on it which disconnects it from that cloud and have full control locally.

Holy Cow! :shocked:

 

[metalbender]

Mine is on a Woods remote on-off fob in the house. Turn it on a few hrs before I need the tractor. When it's this cold, just leave it on.

 

[SylvainG]

With a bit of 'brain grease' (instead of elbow grease), you can have it to turn on at different time based on how cold it is outside. Heck, if you have a Google Home, Amazon Echo or Apple Homekit, you could say, "Alexa (or whatever device you have), have the tractor ready by 9am" and the routines would turn on the block heater at a time that your tractor coolant is warm by 9am.

So during the day, play with the tractor and in the evening, play with home automation

 

[MHarryE]

Block heater works fine. It’s just been so cold - like nowhere else in continental USA. Our area holds the record for coldest temperature ever recorded in the 48. 30 below not uncommon, 40 below now getting rare, was common when I was growing up. 50 below meant schools out when I was that age, maybe 2 or 3 days a year. 60 below is the official low in our area but thats in a town, not a real cold spot. Two years ago we farmers gathered at a conference south of me about 100 miles. One topic of discussion was finding the thermometers in most of our trucks bottomed out at 40 below. Only one person was able to give the true temp - 54 below.

So that’s the temperatures we have been dealing with. We haven’t seen zero for 10 days now Jeff’s block heater is working just fine. In fact it heats the block so well the glow plugs drop off too quickly because the top end gets too hot. The bottom end, however, is down near the pour point of the oil from the oil data sheet. So with heat on the oil pan he got the boost needed to run.

 

[BlueKnife]

Were the block heaters installed upside down?

Is this a trick question?

 

[goeduck]

Is this a trick question?

Upside down would be better than inside out :laughing:

 

[wolc123]

I have mine plugged into an outlet that is controlled by a switch inside the house. The snow plow tractor is parked outside under a porch overhang. There is also an indicator light in the house plugged into that outlet, so I know when the heater is on.

When the temp is zero, I leave it on a couple hours. 30 minutes is enough when it is 32 degrees. The tractor (JD 4120) starts just as smooth as it does in the summer after these times. I would not dream of starting that without the block heater in the winter. That is way too hard on the diesel engine.

Often, I plow snow when i get home from work. I have a 1/2 hour drive, so I just call my wife and have her throw the switch prior to departure. That way the tractor is warmed up by the time I get home. That has came in handy a time or two when I needed it and a chain to yank my 2wd vehicle out of the town truck plow drift I tried to get thru getting into our driveway.

 

[fidowanttobe]

Does anyone have experience with these? I used one for the 90w in the tranny but now use a magnetic. Was afraid it would scorch the oil. Had no evidence of that, just paranoia I guess.

 

[LouNY]

I used one for a few years.
Not sure how much help it was.
It did get some baked on oil residue at the point of the surface level of the oil,
as I never parked in exactly the same area that point was always a bit different,
so it had about a half inch area that built up a bit of residue.

 

[Egon]

Is this a trick question?

Nope.

 

[not2old]

I have an inline coolant heater that I run for 20 minutes before start and the vehicle pops right off and is ready to work much sooner than a cold start.

The engine only has a 100 hrs on it since overhaul and will start cold but a little heat much reduces the engine wear on start so I routinely use the heater. I have it plugged into a Bluetooth enabled switch so I can activate the heater with the phone.

Are you able to supply information on the bluetooth switch? I've been unable to find anything on them and refuse to hook up my house or shop to the internet for these things.

 

[Bavarian]

That was on Monday morning and I needed the tractor. Plugged it in for about 3 hours and she fired right up with block heater and transmission heater.

 

[Reb954]

I have an inline coolant heater that I run for 20 minutes before start and the vehicle pops right off and is ready to work much sooner than a cold start.

The engine only has a 100 hrs on it since overhaul and will start cold but a little heat much reduces the engine wear on start so I routinely use the heater. I have it plugged into a Bluetooth enabled switch so I can activate the heater with the phone.

I also would like info on the Bluetooth switch if you have it.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I use a block heater, a stick on heater on the lower side of the oil pan sump, and a stick on heater on the lower side of the hydro trans casing.

Just the block heater alone would start the tractor at -40F with some squabbling. I would use the glow plug cycle for one full cycle before starting, and it would start. But adding the oil pan sump heater helped it to start "more better". And adding the hydro trans heater meant that I could use the tractor in a couple of minutes of run time, instead of starting it up and going back in the house for 15-20 min to get the hydro to warm up (it wouldn't move the tractor when that cold).

Now I have all 3 plugged into a short 3-way pigtail that I leave tied to the side of the loader frame. I connect my extension cord to that, and the other end plugs into an outdoor timer. I think I have it set to come on at 5am, and I think it turns off at 10am. But by the time I'm ready to use it in the morning (if needed-no snow this year), it's warm enough that it fires right up without issues.

I did replace my OEM battery, which was a cheaper grade Interstate brand wet cell battery. It died the first winter I had the tractor, and on the first overnight low that hit -30F. Yup, dead as a hammer. Can't be having that now. Up here, we call -30F "Tuesday". So, if it won't survive our "normal" temps, it's gotta go. I replaced it with a red top Optima, and it's never given me a lick of trouble. Even at -45F, battery is ready to party.

 

[SylvainG]

That was on Monday morning and I needed the tractor. Plugged it in for about 3 hours and she fired right up with block heater and transmission heater.View attachment 686087

We have the same weather station. Luckily there was no wind, or was the manometer frozen solid?

 

[MHarryE]

We are going on 14 days without the temperature reaching 0°F. Most days have ranged from -30° to -45° low to -12° to -5° high. One of the local farmers I sell grain to told me he has had one tractor running day and night going on 8 days now because of difficulty starting. My nephew needs one loader tractor daily and a tractor for his grinder mixer every other day. He doesn't want to leave his loader tractor idling continuously because it is DPF equipped. Block heater alone is not enough - he needs to heat the oil so an hour with a propane heater on the oil pan and no starting problems. His tractor for the grinder mixer is a NH Workmaster 75. It needs block heater, oil pan heat, plus jump from another vehicle to start. He did buy a magnetic oil pan heater but its only 200 watts and isn't confident it will heat enough. Now that he is certain the propane heater will do the job he uses it to heat whichever tractor he needs to use. I read mixed reviews on this heater size. One person put 4 on his 100 hp tractor, 3 on the block, 1 on the oil pan, and he still couldn't start. Customer in Alberta with one heater glued to the pan of his 1.6 liter car engine had good luck in temps to -50°. Our forecast now is that we will actually have +3° for a high Monday - a heat wave.

 

[Bavarian]

We are going on 14 days without the temperature reaching 0°F. Most days have ranged from -30° to -45° low to -12° to -5° high. One of the local farmers I sell grain to told me he has had one tractor running day and night going on 8 days now because of difficulty starting. My nephew needs one loader tractor daily and a tractor for his grinder mixer every other day. He doesn't want to leave his loader tractor idling continuously because it is DPF equipped. Block heater alone is not enough - he needs to heat the oil so an hour with a propane heater on the oil pan and no starting problems. His tractor for the grinder mixer is a NH Workmaster 75. It needs block heater, oil pan heat, plus jump from another vehicle to start. He did buy a magnetic oil pan heater but its only 200 watts and isn't confident it will heat enough. Now that he is certain the propane heater will do the job he uses it to heat whichever tractor he needs to use. I read mixed reviews on this heater size. One person put 4 on his 100 hp tractor, 3 on the block, 1 on the oil pan, and he still couldn't start. Customer in Alberta with one heater glued to the pan of his 1.6 liter car engine had good luck in temps to -50°. Our forecast now is that we will actually have +3° for a high Monday - a heat wave.

I have a heater at the transmission, JD call it pen heater. It's got the shape of a pen and it's attached to the outdide. I do see an increase of temperature in the transmission. I don't know how many watts it has.
At the newer tractors without the mechanical clutch, oil viscosity in the transmission is crucial. It has to be turned with the engine and can't be disconnected.

 

[LouNY]

Makes for a long day when you have to fight with every thing to get them started before you can get started working