block heater not working

[chevy joe]

plugged it in the last 3 nights and was still ice cold in the morning. my truck already cranks really slow (not sure if one of my new batterys is junk or bad connection at the battery) but if i cycle the gps a time or 2 she fires right off. whats the deal with these? how hard to change?

[madpogue]

There's no "cycling" of the glow plugs. They stay on way past when the WTS light goes off. Just leave it in RUN for an extra 10-20 seconds.

As for the block heater, first make sure the supply voltage from the house is good. Then check the resistance at the plug. It should be about 14 ohms. If that's not right, disconnect the cord down at the heater itself and check the resistance right at the heater, and check for continuity of the three conductors on the cord. That'll narrow down the cause.

[ToMang07]

For the glow plugs, if it's really cold just leave the key "on" for a minute or two, I believe the GP's will run a minute+ after the WTS light goes off. I would try a new Block heater chord first. (It plugs into the heater element in the oil cooler.) If that doesn't fix it, time for a new heater element. You need to drain the coolant to replace the heating element, just FYI. Good luck.

[madpogue]

GPs will actually stay on up to 2:00 on cold start. It's programmed based on engine oil temp. Remember, the GPs are NOT just for starting. There are charts floating around in the pic galleries of one of the truck forums, showing GP run time based on EOT, and WTS light-on time based on EOT.

[BartZ32tt]

2nd-you should try a new block heater cable first. Very easy to change out and most likely what the problem is. Changed mine out last year cus it kept tripping the breaker..fixed my problem and seemed to work better. only costs about $20 iirc

[chevy joe]

got the multimeter out. had a few million ohms at the plug. unplugged it from the heater and only have @13.4 ohms at the heater. new cable is on the way. thanks for the help!