When I had my 89 and my 95 auto's, I would always let them cool down a few minutes in neutral before shutting them down if I was hauling or towing anything. Heat is the number one enemy of the slushbucket in my opinion and the more you can get rid of, the better.<br>You can do a real simple test to prove this. With your engine and trans at normal temp, put it in park (with the engine running of course) and feel the trans cooler lines. After a minute or so, they will cool down quite a bit. Now, put it in neutral and feel the cooler lines again. They will heat up right away and will take a lot longer to cool down. You have to be in a gear or in neutral to get the fluid moving to cool it or heat it up in your case.

 

One quick question <br><br>I noticed a reference to a timer on the block heater. ??? I normally just plug it in at night if it’s going to be 40 deg. or less and no timer. Even if ice is on the ground the heat from the block normally leaves the windshield clean or at least soft. Am I missing something here?<br>

 

[quote author=bigfoot link=board=8;threadid=8543;start=15#84150 date=1040688902]<br>One quick question <br><br>I noticed a reference to a timer on the block heater. ??? I normally just plug it in at night if it’s going to be 40 deg. or less and no timer. Even if ice is on the ground the heat from the block normally leaves the windshield clean or at least soft. Am I missing something here?<br><br>[/quote]<br><br>Some people use a timer and set it to turn on a few hours before they leave for work and plug the block heater into the timer...so far this years Ive not needed to plug my truck in the coldest its been is 10* but I cycle the grid heater a couple of times before I start

 

I don't use a timer on mine either, just plug it in if below 30 degrees. Don't see much difference on the electric bill and like you said, the windshield is nice and clear.

 

In Minnesota, you have to have her plugged in if you can help it.

It makes you have less sleepless night because of the question &quot;Will it start and if it does how much life did I take off of her.&quot;

I also us the Lund front grill blockers that snap in. Use 2 from 10 to 32 degrees and all 4 from -30 to 10 degrees. Your truck will have half a chance to warm up.

 

If it gets in the 20's, I plug it in and let it plugged. One ice storm here a few years back, I left it plugged in for about five days straight. Can't remember what it did to the elec bill but wasn't enough to be concerned about.

 

My dad is a tight wad and me being a diesel junkey does not help. He works night shift and when he comes home he always unplugs my truck and it makes me sooo mad. I have aproblem because my truck is really hard to start even with it pluged in. I have to cycle the grid heaters even if pluged in all night. I know the block heater is working somewhat because if I don't plug it in it will not start at all it will just crank about 4 times and thats it. Yes I have good batteries just got them last week and still the same. the grid heaters sure pull alot and to turn the massive engine also pulls a lot of power. I hope to get it fixed sometime soon but everything checks out to be ok so I'm stumped to what the problem is.<br>DM01