decreasing heatup time
 

Hey all. This year's winter sucks for my 2000 4.7L. It takes at least 10 minutes for my heater to blow out warm air...even longer for it to be hot. So I was wondering what I can do to help decrease this heat-up time. Thanks in advance.

RE: decreasing heatup time
 

Well what makes it hot is the engine running.. so one thing you can do is go out a few minutes early and start up your truck in the morning before you leave, then it will be warm by the time you go to drive her around.

Other then that, i guess you could rev your engine a bit.. that would warm it up faster, but also use more gas.

It would defintely help if you dropped a v8 in that bitch though. That engine is superior

RE: decreasing heatup time
 

it is a v8.

i already start it up in the morning but the gas used to a killer. I know my dad's ram, which is a 2002...warms up a lot quicker.

RE: decreasing heatup time
 

Move to Florida. :D

RE: decreasing heatup time
 

LOL. yea that ain't gonna happen.

RE: decreasing heatup time
 

Here is one method that my dad used to do. Cut a piece of cardboard to fit behing the grille covering the radator. Not toching it so it dont light on fire. Suposily becuase the air does not go into the engine compartment it will warm up faster and since your driving it you are reving it anyways. He said only for short distances which makes since cause you can overheat it. Just putting that out their never done it myself but he claims it works. I dunno.

RE: decreasing heatup time
 

i was thinking of flushing my coolant system. Would that do anything?

RE: decreasing heatup time
 

They make covers for the grill of big trucks and you can adjust the zipper that goes up the middle like on a pair of jeans I bet you could make something like that yourself to cut off some of the cold air flow over your radiator from the grill, make sure you don't put it directly on the radiator or you will go from cold to over heating if you cut all air flow......maybe use some zip ties on the inside of the grill to attach something.

RE: decreasing heatup time
 

pablov - The temp at which paper (and thus cardboard) burns is 451 degrees F. Your thermostat is set to open at about 195 degrees. Your radiator won't get much warmer than 200-210 if it's working properly, and should be cooler than that under normal temps. There will be no fire. Remember boys and girls, you can boil water in a paper cup.

Heater cores going bad seem to be fairly common in Dakotas. You could be seeing the beginning of the end. I would do a power flush of your cooling system and see if you can't blast chunkies out of it.

You have some options, the cardboard trick is used a lot by trucks to get them to warm up and keep at operating temps. I wouldn't leave it in there full time like bigger trucks do, since we don't have a big frontal area for cooling and it might cause overheating once underway.

Another option is to get a block heater installed and plug it in at night. It'll keep your engine a lot warmer overnight, so it's got to generate a lot less heat to get to operating temp.

RE: decreasing heatup time
 

+1 on the block heater:D I use mine quite a bit.

I would never sit in your drive way revving the motor when it cold. that is not good for it!

or you can buy a remote start so you dont have to go out and start it, then run back into the house.;)

but I would flush the cooling system and the heater core good. and see what that does.
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Paxil Death