My truck is too big for my already full garage, so it will be living outside all winter. Indiana winters are a crapshoot. It's safe to assume however, it's going to be cold for sure. My truck, with 230,000 soldiers on well enough, but I don't want to subject it to very hard starts on cold cold mornings. My concern is damaging the motor. I'm considering a magnetic block warmer or a dipstick warmer to combat the hard starting issues.

Anyone use these with any degree of success? I've heard that both these will "cook" the oil or cook the antifreeze if left plugged in for extended periods. I'm thinking about putting it on a timer and that way the heater won't kick on till about five in the morning or so, giving it enough time to warm up the motor but not so long that it cooks the oil. Any thoughts on the subject? I'd love to have a factory block heater installed, but I don't think it's worth the trouble!

My personal favorite engine heaters are the guys that actually circulate the warmed coolant. They install in one of the heater lines, and when you go out in the morning, start the truck, you have heat right away. They don't cook the coolant, or the oil, and warm most of the coolant, instead of just the stuff in one side of the block. Kinda like this guy, (but, that one is used.)

I used to live in Marquette Michigan.... so, something was absolutely required if you actually wanted to be able to drive your car in winter...... They didn't plow the parking lots where I lived, they plowed the front yard, so you could park your car in range of an electrical outlet.......

Thanks. I've seen those which install in the lower radiator hose, but I was once told that they do nothing to keep from putting severe wear on the motor internals during cold starting.

Most of your wear from cold starting is getting the oil circulated thru the engine. If the oil is cold, it doesn't wanna flow as nicely. With today's modern oils, that's a lot less of an issue. Having the engine block warmed, will also transfer heat to the oil, with no danger of coking it. Far better than just sticking a heating element into a freeze plug.

Ok, thanks. The only other thing I worry about with the hose heater is the hose cracking/melting due to the warm-up/cool down from the heater.

It does that anyway with the engine. Most of them are well designed enough that the heating elements are fully covered by coolant anyway. Only time I could ever see it being a problem is if the engine was low on coolant to begin with, and I think the heaters are also protected from getting TOO hot.

if you are worried about hard starting maybe you should go have the battery tested. during winter my battery charger practically lives under the hood of my truck to always keep it nice and strong but i spent a bit extra money on a water proof charger.

I'd avoid the magnetic and/or dipstick heaters. They don't last, and they tend to spot-overheat the oil. Your engine can make enough carbon all by itself, so why help it along?

I have both a block heater and a oil pan heater that is theromstat controled when it hits 200 it kicks out.

Where did you get that? Does it just tee into the oil cooler line?