Does any one know how too go about doing this? I would like to be able to control when the heaters work and does not. I am thinking of something with a switch so that they will function normally when cold but after the rig is started I can disable them.

Starting to get tired of my truck acting like a strobe light.

 

Say goodbye to any and all warranties. PLus I think you would do more damage than good.

 

I can tell you how to do it but accept no responsibility from any engine damage.

Find the grid heater solenoids. There will be two large wires on each one and some small ones. You need break the circuit on one of the small wires with a toggle switch on each solenoid.

 

Why would you want to disable them? They will turn off by themselves after a few minutes, or once you get up fifteen-twenty miles per hour. cdru

 

The problem is he wants to stop his lights from dimming a little. So he would have to put a circut breaker on all the heaters.

 

How about for the opposite? Would the truck warm up faster if you could keep them on longer? I always wondered why it turns off at 20mph. Also durning those winter months when you pull over to take a nap and leave the truck running, sure the rpms bumb up, but it would be nice for the grid to cycle every now and then to help keep engine temps up. I don't know how well the batteries and charging system would like all the extra duty though.

 

I'm not the sharpest person in the world but how can a grid heater warm up the engine any faster? All a grid heater does is heat up the in comeing air for the truck to start when the temp is somewhere around 58 degrees or so.

 

I hear the grids get pretty darn hot, I think any additional heat to the engine woud help out a little. It must get hot since it seems to work as well as glow plugs. I'm mainly looking to keep the head temps up while idling in the winter months.

 

shutting off the grid heaters is easy. kbennett is exactly right, just break the small circuit on the relays with a toggle switch.

turning the heater on longer or whenever u want is easy too. u would have to supply accessory power the close the relays instead of the ecm doing it.

but i don't see why this is really needed or wanted????

 

I looked at this thread to see how other people would disable their grid heaters. What has been said about installing a switch in the relay primary wires is what I was thinking of doing. The reason I want to be able to disable them is because I can't operate the power windows without the key switch in the on (run) position. In the accessory position there is no power to the windows. This is the way the owners manual says it works. (I've never had any other vehicle where the windows wouldn't work in ACC.) I don't want to cycle the heaters just to operate the windows if the engine is not running.

Second reason is I have a Fisher Quick Switch plow mounted in the winter which is electro-hydraulicaly operated. Sometimes I want to move the blade without starting the engine (to get working room around the front of the vehicle). Again, I don't want to have to cycle the heaters just to do this.

I've noticed in some posts people talking about cycling their heaters twice or more for cold starts. My owner's manual says not to cycle them more than once every 15 minutes.

Bill

 

uhh... just disconnect the large gauge wires from the grid heaters that's how mine are

 

On the newer trucks on the driverside visor it states that multiple cycles can be done by simply turning to the off position, and back to start, I've been in extremely cold weather and once has always been plenty.

High idle will engage automatically if additional heat is needed to maintain engine temps in cold weather and the newer trucks you can control this at anytime.

 

Do the grid heaters go out ontheir own. I have a feeling that mine doesn't work any more. When my truck starts it run rough and smokes. Why would anyone want this on a daily basis. Any help on finding my grid heater problem would be appreciated.

 

I think I remember somewhere on here that someone had an instance where the grid heater did not turn off and had the intake side glowing red hot. Anyone else remember seeing that? There should be no problem turning it off when you don't want it to run. But controlling the amount of time it stays on is probably a bad idea.

 

Maybe you could hook your lights up differently.... put them on their own circuit more or less.....