From someone who lives where its actually snowing as I type and have seen plenty of days with a high temp of -20F getting these 2nd gens to warm up has always been fun. Definitely need to make sure your block heater is functioning but that only helps for starting. It does not necessarily mean it will warm up. You need to have a properly functioning fan clutch, thermostat, good battery(s) for starting (general rule below freezing cca should be double your displacement in ci for gas motors), and a decent winter front (or cardboard if you are cheap). I have actually driven diesels that won't get up to operating temp without driving them with a full winter front and will cool of while running (usually -10F or lower when this happens). Electric fans can help with warm up as you don't have any extra air moving until it warms up and the fans are triggered. If you don't have a block heater they make magnetic heaters for your oil pan that actually work well just remember to take it off before you drive off, learned that one the hard way.................

On a side note these are the same systems you need to have functioning for the extreme heat as well, coming from the state that holds the temperature difference record for a single year and sits as sixth for coldest and hottest state lol.

Mopar where are you located?

 

I was looking into winter fronts as my 360 with the 180 thermostat barely gets heat on these cool nights... Yes I do get e-fans way to many bad experiences: D
PA our weather is sort of similar to where you are lol both have block heaters this year, never had problems starting I just hate that it's takes 45 years for these trucks to get heat. I know it sounds girly but when I was in the Corps and had to do mountain training I learned to hate hate hate the cold.

 

Park it inside :-) +1 on cardboard for a very cold day... don't forget to take it out though.

 

Remote start! Let it warn up while you are still inside.

 

I get it, my v10 today when it was 40F idled for 10mins then drove for 10 miles before it hit operating temp and it was parked inside where it was 55F. I put 2 thermostats in it last summer thinking that was the problem, nope. Last winter I was lucky to hit operating temp with cardboard if it ran for an hour when it hit -15F or lower. I have driven second gens that had great heat though so I do plan on getting a heater core in it at some point. That v10 just has so much iron to warm up though so that's half the problem same with your cummins. My 360 took half as long to warm up but the previous owner had used stop leak and I was constantly flushing the system and heater core in it and every time junk came out I would be good for a bit than back to cold. Not fun when the vent temp was 55F and out side was -34F, could hardly keep the windows drivable that day. I am going to do my belt and fan clutch here at some point to see if that helps at all.

Short story. I have a co-worker from PA, last year was his first winter not on the east coast. He looked at me one day and said, " how can it be so windy with blowing snow and no visibility when the sun is out". I just laughed and explained how our snow is significantly drier and colder here and can blow around for days or even over a week after a storm. You guys don't get as nice of powder as we do here. We actually get less snow here than the coast it just sticks around longer.

 

Wish I had the room to my old cars are in the garage
I thought about it but $650 doesn't sit trigh with me lol one day though
Yeah our snow is sort of like syrup. Last winter one week it was -15 next week I'm not kidding it was 55 so PAs weather is on crack. My 360 actually takes longer to get heat then my Cummins. 360 takes about 45 minutes to an hour where the Cummins gets heat at about 20-30 minutes

 

Are we talking about the diesel or gasser? Remote starts for gassers are around $100(or less) for basic no frills models. The diesels are more $ but not $600. Of course installation costs add to it if you are not doing it yourself.
http://www.dieseltechmag.com/2015/04/start-me-up

 

Mostly the gasser I got quoted $647 from the local place that installs them. That was for a compustar system

 

that still seem very high priced for a remote start. they didn't have fancy chipped keys in 01 did they? that might seem about the right price on newer vehicles that need a security bypass module but seems a bit too high for something without a factory security system.

 

The chipped key I'm not sure of. But since I never installed one I will leave it to the professionals lol