gird heater

[Killer223]

Is there a way to make the grid heaters stay on to heat up the engine faster? i know the computer cycles them, but i would like to be able to control them myself. when they kick on my iAT is roughly 135. but they soon kick off. so thoughts...??? thanks.

[mopartechnician]

All you would have to do is tap a power wire into the relays to kick them on with a switch. But running the heaters isnt going to hel that is why the computer turns them on when needed. You are just going to make the batteries and alternator work harder to make up

[ABennin]

I don't see any benefit to keeping them on, it's just a starting aid. Could look into the IAT/ECT fooler.http://forum.mopar1973man.com/threads/8317-New-revised-MPG-High-idle-switch-design?highlight=high+idle+fooler

[Ilikeoldfords]

You also might try a winter front of some kind. I am just using the good old card board in front of the radiators and it seems to help a bit. Also using a block heater really helps the warm up process.

[Killer223]

Maybe someone can explain why heating the air up to 130 won't warm the engine up faster? wouldnt it be kinda like a EGR? hoter air intake? I do want the IAT/ECT fooler. plan on buying one when made available. or build my own maybe. but i'm talking about heating up the engine faster. i need an explanation as to why running them longer wouldnt help warm it up faster....

[Mopar1973Man]

Maybe someone can explain why heating the air up to 130 won't warm the engine up faster? wouldnt it be kinda like a EGR? hoter air intake? I do want the IAT/ECT fooler. plan on buying one when made available. or build my own maybe. but i'm talking about heating up the engine faster. i need an explanation as to why running them longer wouldnt help warm it up faster....

Only to a point. I would imagine if the intake air was heated to 120-140*F constantly it should improve warm up times. That's the way it was back in the 1970's muscle car they had a thermostatic vacuum valve that controlled heated air for the air cleaner to air in warm up times. But some where in the 80's that all went away and Cold Air Intake was the rave and electronic fuel injection came out. EGR isn't a good thing in any sense. All you doing is fill the manifold with CO2 and heat and not making a burnable mixture for the next cycle. But heated air would help out I don't see any reason why it won't.

[Killer223]

Only to a point. I would imagine if the intake air was heated to 120-140*F constantly it should improve warm up times. EGR isn't a good thing in any sense. All you doing is fill the manifold with CO2 and heat and not making a burnable mixture for the next cycle. But heated air would help out I don't see any reason why it won't.

I know that EGR's are bad for engines. i'm just trying to find a way to get my truck to warm up faster. My dad's 00 Powerstroke warms up in 5-10 min. ideling, mine takes like 10+ miles. and sometimes still won't warm up. Yes i've checked the t-stat. good clean antifreez. So what i'm thinking is flip a switch to run the grid heaters for say 2-5 min. to aid in heating things up...

[mopartechnician]

The best way to warm up your truck is to drive it. Idleing does nothing for your engine but wear out quicker, burn fuel, and you take a chance at varnishing the valves. I only idle long enough to build oil preasure and drive it

[Killer223]

The best way to warm up your truck is to drive it. Idleing does nothing for your engine but wear out quicker, burn fuel, and you take a chance at varnishing the valves. I only idle long enough to build oil preasure and drive it

Come spend the night here in Flagstaff Az get a nice layer of frost on your windshield and show me how you plan on starting it and driving it after oil pressure has risen. i have to let my truck warm up to defrost the windshield. i know these are fleet engines start and go. but i have other reason for wanting to aid in heating things up faster. Thanks for the input though.

[Mopar1973Man]

The best way to warm up your truck is to drive it. Idleing does nothing for your engine but wear out quicker, burn fuel, and you take a chance at varnishing the valves. I only idle long enough to build oil preasure and drive it

So very true. The only other way to warm up a truck quickly is with high idle and exhaust brake. This way you create a virtual load for the engine and create heat.

So what i'm thinking is flip a switch to run the grid heaters for say 2-5 min. to aid in heating things up...

Don't want to do that either that a wonderful way of destroying the alternator being its only rated for 140 Amp tops and you dropping a excessive load of 195 Amps on for 2-5 minutes most likely overheat the alternator in a quick hurry.

[diesel4life]

Like has been mentioned there is entirely too much load being put on the electrical system to sustain long term use of the grid heaters. They are designed to run in short bursts and even at that they deplete the reservoir of the batteries quicker than the alternator can sustain. You would be placing a large strain on the alternator and pulling the batteries down to 8-10 volts sustained is not good either. Even if you could get around this, I think the benefits would be marginal. You need to put heat into the coolant, air temps will only get you so far in that aspect. The 3 cylinder high idle works great as does the high idle if you have an EB. We get lots of cold weather here as well, and lots of frost with the high humidity we see year around. I typically start my truck, scrape the windows off and get in and go. If it is below 15 degrees I will generally hit the 3 cyl high idle after it has been running a minute and let it run for 5 to 10 minutes at most and drive easy until it gets up to tempSent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk

[mopartechnician]

Obviously you have never been to nebraska. Its 28 right now and 18 tomorrow night. It rained last night and froze. I scraped ice this morning and did exactly what i said about starting and driving it.

[ISX]

I don't know if you guys know this but the windshield wiper fluid wipes a light frosting right off.. I have done it every morning the last couple weeks. The only way I would do what you want is if you had a deep cycle battery that disconnected from the entire electrical system for the duration of energizing the grids. I put a little 50 amp relay on mine that was energized by the grid heaters which would switch the relay and open the "charging" wires that connected the one battery to the rest of the system. Was really nice since the voltmeter never budged since the grids weren't tied to the main batteries when they were on. I think the EGR stuff makes the air a lot hotter than a mere 130F. I mean my truck on a 100F day still takes forever to warm up. Meaning I am not sure if your idea would work very good. The principle is sound but I don't think it will help that much and could possibly burn up grid heater wires and such if you aren't careful.

[Killer223]

thank you all for the input.

[Mopar1973Man]

I don't know if you guys know this but the windshield wiper fluid wipes a light frosting right off.. I have done it every morning the last couple weeks. The only way I would do what you want is if you had a deep cycle battery that disconnected from the entire electrical system for the duration of energizing the grids. I put a little 50 amp relay on mine that was energized by the grid heaters which would switch the relay and open the "charging" wires that connected the one battery to the rest of the system. Was really nice since the voltmeter never budged since the grids weren't tied to the main batteries when they were on. I think the EGR stuff makes the air a lot hotter than a mere 130F. I mean my truck on a 100F day still takes forever to warm up. Meaning I am not sure if your idea would work very good. The principle is sound but I don't think it will help that much and could possibly burn up grid heater wires and such if you aren't careful.

I'm also the same way light frost and wiper solution will typically knock it off. But heavy snow or ice build up is a different story and the good ol' fashion ice scraper comes out. I would typically at this point fire up and set the 3 cylinder high idle and exhaust brake. By the time I'm done scrapping the entire windshield the heat has caught up enough to get the last little bits by the time I start moving. But this is rare for me. I typically store my truck in a unheated shop.