And another note...I finally got my bloack heater cord installed. Tomorrow I should use it for the first time. I'll let you all know what happens.
From another thread:
The lag time of engine oil warming is another topic covered by Hillary: 15-30" behind coolant . . . . That's [potentially] a lot of fuel over a years time. Coolant pre-heat would shorten engine oil temp lag time once underway. [Fleet consultant Doug] Hillary likes to see a close [overall] relationship between coolant and oil sump temps. There is an SAE paper on that discussed on BITOG.
As the Cummins is equipped with an excellent in-block fluid-to-fluid oil cooler (to bring up oil temps faster, and to avoid high temp spikes) it would seem as if pre-heating the coolant would be a good move for a commute of nearly any length.
And the electrical use is offset by longer engine life, IMO.
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