block heater srsly......

ruffneck7.3 · Jan 31, 2020

lincolnlocker said:
Yeah. The internal parts are ***in small and a major pita to get to

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I've worked on them before, idk not the worst I've had to deal with..

I love it because it's so tiny and how much heat they put out.. amazing in my opinion.. my truck is a lot happier when starting, minus the couple of wore out injectors lol

13fist · Feb 1, 2020

OK, back on this while I wait for D60 parts to arrive.

Whats the best way to plumb the coolant flow? I found an old instruction pdf for installation into a 7.3 excursion that shows the webasto in between the heater core and the outlet at the head.
I'd like to push all the heat into the engine rather than the heater core.
It doesn't seem right to put the little electric pump in the loop like that. My gut says it should be plumed in a bypass. I'm probably overthinking it.

ruffneck7.3 · Feb 2, 2020

I think the best was would be the path natural flow.. I have the international water pump, so it's a bit easier.. I'm going to draw from by the thermostat, and have it dump into the lower rad hose.. there are ports there on the international pump..

Right now I have it just hooked into my heater hoses.. it still works pretty good that way! I just think the way I have planned will be better.. I also plan to use a check valve in the heater hose that dumps in there to keep it from just going to the heater core..

Either way you do it, I'd have it draw from the hot side and return into the cold side, in theory it'll heat the whole motor that way

lincolnlocker · Feb 3, 2020

There should be NPT plugs on each side of block for coolant drains. Just plumb into them.

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ruffneck7.3 · Feb 4, 2020

lincolnlocker said:
There should be NPT plugs on each side of block for coolant drains. Just plumb into them.

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As I recall, they're 1/4 npt.. kinda small

lincolnlocker · Feb 4, 2020

ruffneck7.3 said:
As I recall, they're 1/4 npt.. kinda small

I thought they where 3/8 but maybe thats the oil rial... But it would completely circulate the coolant. Is there a spec that says it has to be a specific size line?

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13fist · Feb 4, 2020

All the webasto & pump fittings I have are right in between 5/8 & 3/4. A hair closer to 3/4. Probably metric.
If the pump can handle the restriction, pushing the heat into the lower part of the block sounds like the way to go.

ruffneck7.3 · Feb 4, 2020

Mine were just under 3/4 too.. honestly it doesn't seem to matter as much as you would think, because mine being tee'd into the heater hoses still warms the entire motor, and if I let it go long enough or after I shut it off, it will keep it at the 180 or however hot cutoff in the webasto, like for example if I go somewhere for dinner or at work.. doesn't draw much power either

13fist · Feb 6, 2020

Well, it's installed and working out quite well. No pics yet because the current setup is temporary. Due to my own measure once, cut twice and it still not being long enough. A conspiracy I say....:fustrate:

When I get some more hose, I'll clean up the install. I'm just happy it works.
First run I thought something was wrong but it was just slow to prime. Let it run for am hour while I stared at everything looking for leaks, and when I turned the key on she was warm! Got good warm air out of the defrost too!.

Whats a good timer/controller for this? Currently I'm using the little oval minitimer. It's ok but it defaults to a 30 min run time and seems to lack any sort of temp monitoring.
I haven't figured out how to wire in the excursions blower motor. I think it's supposed to be able to turn that on when it gets hot enough. There is also mention of wiring into the "ignition on" to shut this thing off when the truck starts. No mention of what wire goes where for that to happen.

ruffneck7.3 · Feb 7, 2020

As far as turning on the blower motor, I know you gotta add a pin to the connector, and I think it is supposed to turn on after 5 or 10 minutes or something like that.. I haven't messed with it, my buddy did, and he added the pin and everything, but no signal off it.. only thing we could come up with is you might need the diagnostic software to change it or something.. they sell it on fleabay for like $50.. I haven't heard of how to set it up for it to turn on after you shut it off... btw, the webasto has a built in temp controller, I think it shuts off at 180°.. no external controller required

Me and my buddy both used this timer

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YCZX3R2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_mgBpEb4GN5B41

Its 12v, easy to setup and almost however long you want to run it.. and cheap lol..

Once you get used to the webasto, you'll never go back to plugging it in again, far superior to a plug in block heater.. even my oil temperature in the morning is around 80° as my torque pro app sees it.. spendy yes, but oh so nice! Glad you got it in and working!

13fist · Feb 8, 2020

This thing is already worth it. Ran it during my lunch break when I'd typically leave the engine running and it kept everything warmed up.
Fuel savings plus not taking the hit on the electric bill. I was running the block heater on a timer, and that was starting to add up.
Now, I just plug in the battery maintainer when I get home.
I've been searching around and it seems there are several diy arduino controller projects that use the diagnostic bus to make all of the
options available, like displaying the hobbs meter and such. It has been awhile since I have coded anything, but it looks like a fun project.
Maybe after I finish my axle swap. I'm bad about starting too many at once and nothing gets done.

ruffneck7.3 · Feb 8, 2020

I hear ya there man.. I have several projects going on besides my stroker, and others that aren't auto related.. main one I'm gonna focus on this year is swapping my vw tdi motor into a cj7 and make it a daily besides my stroker.. the tdi is a lot like a cummins truck, awesome motor wrapped in a ****ty wrapper.. I'm going to de german it as much as I can, and not go mechanical.. all said and done, it should be about 200hp and 360tq to the wheels.. no fire breather, but a fun daily for sure..

I have a dana 60 sitting in my shop from an 04 that I got for a song, and really the only thing that's stopped me from swapping it as of yet is I haven't had any problems with that stupid dana 50, even though I have 38x15.50s on it.. wheel bearings are going strong for 3 years now somehow.. when I do swap it, I'm going to do the free spin kit.. it makes sense for me having a lifted truck with big wide meats on it.. I also plan on doing the dynatrac rebuildable ball joints, because you don't have to remove them to rebuild them!

Then again, if I can find the right truck on copart, I am going to do a 2011+ lariat interior swap, and might as well do the axle swap while I'm at it lol coils and radius arms ride so much nicer than our leaf sprung trucks