Electric Engine Coolant Heater

[busone]

This is not exactly bus related but the knowledge of you all is unsurpassed. I just bought an electric coolant heater for my dad. I have been going crazy trying to figure out what to get him for Christmas. He leaves for work really early and it gets really cold here in Denver. I looked at block heaters as well. I figured a coolant heater would be better to have instant heat and defroster. Has anybody here used one before with good or bad results? Here is a link to the one I bought.

http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductDeta ... mber=12100

[Steve]

My bus has one. Most of the hoses were getting pretty rotten so when I replaced them I bypassed it before ever using it. Not sure the kind I had would work that great to heat up the water without being about to circulate it.

[wmah]

the heater you are looking at does the same thing as a block heater does. It just heats up the antifreeze. And the way both of them work is when the antifeeze is hot enough the thermostate opens up and the flow is hot goes up and cold goes down method. The benifit of both is the engine is already warm so when you do start your engine it takes less time to warm up the engine to get good hot air to the defrosters.

Sometimes cars and trucks have the block heaters installed from the factory. You just have to go under the hood and look for the cord.
When putting in the block heaters just take a punch and a hammer and knock ones side of the frost plug in and them you can get pliers to pull them out. They are not that hard to put in.

[Eric von Kleist]

My neighbor has a Dodge dually with a Cummins diesel in it. On the cylinder head there are a bunch of freeze plugs around the injectors (IIRC). One was way in the back in the transmission tunnel area. It would have to be that one that corroded through and started leaking. In order to replace it (the factory way), the head would have to have been pulled. He reamed out the freeze plug and threaded it for a 1/4" NPT plug. Then he put RTV rubber sealant on the threads of a plug and screwed it into place. This was last week. So far he hasn't had any problems with it. It was a PITA, and took him a day of lying across his engine in an uncomfortable position, but he managed it and probably saved at least a grand.

[busone]

I like the idea of this heater because it does not require any holes in the engine. I just wish I could install it now while the weather is warm. The ole man will like getting into a warm truck after scraping snow/ice off in the mornings. He has complained for years about waiting for the engine to warm up. Thanks for the info guys.