I spent 5 years in Grand Forks, North Dakota and I can tell you it gets
plenty cold there. You had to have some kind of a block heater or your
vehicle would freeze. Back in 85 I had a 79 Bronco. I had that truck set up
so it would never freeze up. I had 2 block heaters installed in it, one on
each side of the block, a battery warming wrap, and heated battery tray and
finally, I found a small space heater that mounted under the dash that had
a thermostat in it. The space heater only came on for 10 minutes out of
ever 45 and only if the temp was below freezing. I had a surge protector
mounted under the hood with everything plugged into it and the cord for
that run out through the grill. Most of the parking lot outlets had timers
already on them so they only came on between certain hours, but for at home
use, I had a timer set up in my garage and the cord strung out under the
door. Yes I know all that was overkill, but I never had a problem starting
my truck. An, d after I put the under dash heater in, I never had to
scrape frost or ice from the windows again. Block heaters aren't hard to
install, and I've seen and used a couple different types. The easiest one
to install goes in the lower radiator hose. Drain the coolant, and cut out
a section of the hose and the heater slips in and held in place with hose
clamps. The other type is a bit harder to install but works better, IMHO.
That one you have to knock out a freeze plug and the heater get installed
in its place. Its held secure by means of a permanently mounted toggle bolt
in the heater itself. Slip the toggle into the freeze plug hole and tighten
down with a wrench. I usually wrapped the cord from that type of heater
with protective insulation wrap to prevent it from getting too hot from the
exhaust manifolds. Either one will do you fine.
HTH,
Ray Irons
Dover, DE
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