Engine block heaters

[Ruffus]

I have a new 2016 Ford F-350 with a 6.7 Diesel. I have plugged the engine block heater in at night but when I start it in the morning the temp gauge does not move as it did in my 2006 6.0 diesel. How can I determine if it's working or not? Thanks in advance.

[Hodgy]

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You should see a spark at the plug when you make the connection. Pretty hard to get you hand under where the block heater(s) are.

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[JRTJH]

If you have the "upgraded instrument cluster" there is a setting to monitor the engine oil and transmission oil temperatures. It's the first setting in the cluster. If you have the "2 line cluster" that feature is not available to you. In the 2016, it was standard in the Lariat and above trim levels and optional with the XLT Premium Package. The XLT Value Package did not include the upgraded instrument cluster.

So, if you have the upgrade, you can watch the engine warm up as the oil temp rises and you can select that option on the cluster to check the engine oil temperature, even with the engine not running. Just turn the key on, select the optional cluster gauge, and compare the temp with the ambient temperature. If the oil is warmer than the air, you'll see it in the temp of the engine oil. If the aux block heater is working, it'll be warmer. If the aux block heater is not working, the engine oil temp will be about the same as the ambient air temp. Don't confuse heat from the cab heater outlets as that is not an indicator of "engine warm-up" for a number of reasons, primarily because of the electric heat core that is installed on SOME (not all) of the trucks. It provides cab heat immediately on startup, not related to engine operating temperature.

[Ruffus]

Thanks John, I don't know why I hadn't thought of that. My old 6.0 actually heated the coolant, this one heats the oil which I checked per your suggestion and it was 25 degrees hotter than the ambeant temperature.

[JRTJH]

Good Deal !!! All those years staring at gauges in airplanes and on missile launch systems was good for something LOL Just have to think about it for a few minutes and use the gauges you have to find the info you need. I'm glad you got it figured out ....

[flybynight]

I have a new 2016 Ford F-350 with a 6.7 Diesel.

I have the same setup and how I tell if it's running is that I have the heater plugged into an extension cord, plugged into a "kill-a-watt" device plugged into a timer that is plugged into an outlet.

When heating, the block heater draws between 7.9 and 8.0 amps, when not connected it draws 0.

The reason I used a timer is that I have it set up to turn on around 3 hours before I plan on starting the truck. In the Ford manual it points out that there's no thermostat in the heater and after ~3 hours the engine temp won't increase anymore and it's just a waste of electricity at that point.

This was the same as on my previous 2011 F350.