I just went for a ride in the truck.
This is the first drive where the truck was sitting overnight since the block heater install.
The temperature gauge did read right from turning the truck on. Usually, the temp gauge needle would have been buried.
The truck did seem to warm up quicker. I also noticed that it just didn't feel as sluggish as it usually does first thing in the morning in the winter. Last night wasn't terribly cold though, so it's all subjective.
Edit:
Here's what the truck looked like this morning
Of course the block heater extension cord is covered in a layer of ice!!!
I am planning on using a timer, going into a Killawatt to turn the block heater on in the morning. The Killawatt will track total energy used by the block heater AND the timer.
I've read enough on ecomodder about block heater times. I am planning to start off with the heater running for 3 hours before I leave in the morning. After doing that for a while, I can experiment with other lengths of time as well.