Thanks for the kind words Willie. It is a good car, just a lot of issues from previous owner neglect I think. Nothing that isn't fixable, and it isn't even expensive to fix, but its all time consuming.
This morning was the first morning I used the block heater... all I can say is WOW, 1000W is nice! I plugged it in for about 15 minutes before I left thinking I wouldn't get a ton of heat out of it, but it was better than nothing. By the time I was out of the driveway, my scangauge said my coolant was at 80F, and it was 20F outside.
Yesterday's conditions were about identical to today's. It was 20F out, I went out and scraped the car. I then jumped in, fired it up and went on my way. However, on my way my windshield started to re-fog up on the outside. This is unfortunately fairly common for me. I then had to pull over and scrape the windshield again (engine and defroster running). For half the 7 mile trip to work, I had the defroster on the windshield to warm it up and keep it fully cleared. The rest of the time I had the heat blasting on full to keep me warm. I think I got about 45 mpg.
Today was completely different. I went out and plugged in the block heater (its not on a timer or remote... yet), went back in and grabbed some breakfast. Then I went out and scraped the windows, unplugged and fired it up and off I went. The windshield did start fogging up, but at that point I turned on the defroster and I was able to keep going. I got cabin heat way sooner and didn't need to have the fan blasting the whole way to work. This also meant I was able to do a good amount more engine off coasting which obviously helped get me 53 mpg in to work today. Love it so far, and thats with only 15 minutes of preheat!
