Engine Block Heater

dodgeplowman21

dodgeplowman21

Smokin' Rubber
Joined
Dec 29, 2007
Messages
60
How can you tell if the engine block heater is working properly, or even working at all? I plug the truck in all the time when the temperature will be below 30 degrees during the night.
 
When It gets that cold mine kicks on for about 5-10 seconds...

Normally when it's around 10-15 degrees and its plugged in the grid heater doesn't even kick on...
 
same as gordn said, i can hear mine heat up right after i plug it in!!!!
 
I'll have to check if I can hear it, but I don't think I can. Would that also be the cause for hard starts in the morning when it's cold?
 
I couldn't hear it kick on. Maybe the truck was too warm still, or was just too quiet and couldn't hear it.
 
Put a digital multimeter across the line and neutral pins on your plug. You should have around 33 ohms or so of resistance as I think they are all around 440 watts or so. If it is open (no resistance) it has a bad wire or burned out heater element. Mine reads like 32.5 ohms or something. I also bought from northerntool.com a little appliance watt meter. You plug it into the wall and your appliance (heater) into the box. It will read amps and watts. It should pull around 3.6 amps and read 440 or so watts. They will differ a little but if your number are close it is working.

My buddy that drives a Ferd came over a month ago with a whole box of glow plugs to put in. After testing this, I found that the power cord on the block heater was bad and fixed it with a new cord out of my scrap pile. He got to return his plugs for a refund...he was very happy.
 
Which pins are you talking about. The actual plug. Plugged in, or unplugged. I Put the multimeter across the plug in a bunch of different combinations and got nothing. I'm not real big on the electronics know how.
 
When you hold the plug in your hand that comes off the truck, the one you plug into the wall, the one with the three prongs sticking out in the open, that one. Touch the two rectangel blades, one on each side with the multimeter set on ohms (the greek symbol for omega if that helps) and read the resistance. If you don't get anything, your cord is bad or the element is gone. The ground prong is round, so not that one. Does that help?
 
This will clear it up. Sorry, pretty crude diagram, but meaningful! :D
 

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Touch the probes on your meter first and make sure it reads 00.0 or 00.3 or something like that to make sure it is set right before you start. Then touch the plug and read it. If it then says OL or OPEN or whatever depending on the meter you have a problem. I'm out for the rest of the day. Hope you get it. I'll check on ya tomorrow morning.
 
Why not place you're hand on the upper radiator outlet...if its working, it will be warm after sitting overnight...

steved
 
I'll try the upper radiator hose check in the AM. I think my multimeter is busted. G/f's dad has a fluke, which I can use to check it tonight. My multimeter just reads a 1 on the most left side, and doesn't change when on the OHM's
 
Sounds like it needs a battery??

The top radiator hose should be fairly warm to the touch if it is in the 30s...

steved
 
Ok, I will check the top radiator hose in the am, and grab a battery for my multimeter. Weird thing is that the voltage portion works/displays just fine.
 
Okay, went and got a new battery, now when I touch the probes together it zero's itself. When I touch the probes on the plug I get nothing. So either the element is bad, or the plug/cord is bad, correct?
 
Yes sir. On the ford I diagnosed this way it had a plug on both ends of the cord. I could actually uplug the heater element and splice a new cord on the fancy (piece of crap) connector that ford used to hook to the heater. See if dodge is the same way, I don't know. If you can unplug the other end you can use the ohm function and figure out which wire of the two is broke. If they are both good....you buy a heater! Probe the ground (round pin) and the ground on the other end if you can and make sure your meter is set up right (again). Then put your probe on one pin and probe all the others on the other end. If you don't find that all wire go through, your cable is definetly bad. What I usually find out is that the plug end that you originally probed gets broken inside because you handle it each time you plug your truck in and it dangles and flops around all the time while driving. Good luck!
 
I found that the white wire was not giving it connection. I undid the whole wire and tested each one individually and found that out. I'm gonna splice in a new plug on the end and that should hopefully fix it. Mine is actually only pulling 18.5 ohms. The end that was bad was the end to plug it into the outlet, not the connector on the element itself.
 
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