I'm confused, so the heater gets things warm enough to short or no cycle your glow plugs (or whatever pre heat system) and it fired right away. Why would you want to run the glow plugs longer in relation to your cold oil concern. Neither device is intended to heat your oil. Cold oil passing through a warm block will, and will marginally cool the block but that's quickly replaced by combustion heat.
There is three issues I have with starting this tractor in the cold:
The first is cold oil, not lubricating the engine. I know the coolant heater wont warm the oil, but I was hoping that given enough time, the block would be warmer and the heat would radiate down to the sump and warm it a little. Something is better than nothing. This is the least of my concerns as I do have the proper oil for cold weather in the engine.
The second, separate, concern is regeneration at startup. The ECU's are programed to read the coolant temps before attempting a regeneration cycle, to make sure the engine is at proper operating temps before going even hotter. There has been issues (that have hopefully been fixed with updates to the ECU) where the tractor was not quite at operating temps and then attempts to regen, blowing up the turbos because the oil is not warm enough. If these tractors had oil temp sending sensors and worked off that instead of coolant temp sensors, this would not be a concern at all. My issue with the hose heater is that the ECU reads the coolant temps as warm, attempts a regeneration cycle, and blows the turbo while I'm inside the house drinking my coffee waiting for the tractor to warm up.
The third issue is the glow plugs. I'm pretty sure the sensor reads coolant temp to determine the engine temperature. If the sensor is on top of the radiator and reads ambient air temperature, then it is getting a false reading from the radiator. The ECU believes the engine is at some degree warmer than it really is because the heater. But the air inside the combustion chamber is still very cold. Maybe not as cold as the ambient air temperature, but still cold enough to cause a cold start. Those glow plugs simply do not fire long enough to warm the combustion chambers. The tractor will still start, but with a few knocks and misses. Not horrible, as they smooth out quickly enough, but I'd rather have the glow plugs do their job.
No sure that I have seen an XR regenerate at startup. If your worried about it next time you are using the tractor run a manual regeneration then you don't have to worry about it till summer.
As far as forcing a regen, I never thought of that! I'll definitely do that and that should alleviate one of these issues.
I did order a magnetic block heater too. I'll plug it in and stick it on the oil sump. That should warm (one side) of the oil and make me feel a bit better about these cold starts.
I think I was hoping that this hose heater would live up to the hype, that it would actually warm the engine and prevent cold starts. There was nothing wrong with the way it was, even in the cold. The glow plugs fired long enough to start the engine, but I did have one cold start and that was my fault. I'm just thinking of the wear and tear on this engine, and feel the need to prevent it.
I did shoot a quick video showing the temps after the engine heater ran for about 5 hours last night. I took reading all around and then attempted to start the engine. I did start, but there was that knocking sound for a bit. I tested the timer thinking Maybe it wasnt translating enough power, but that also seemed fine. The instructions didnt say anything about direction for the block heater, and I did follow them to the letter. I just dont think its efficient enough.
Here is that test last night:
Is the Lower Coolant Hose Heater Working? - YouTube
