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1998 6.5 Air intake heater

Dylly said:
JiFaire, i definitely noticed that people posting on this thread are ranging from Alaska to the northern states which makes sense for obvious reasons.
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Yep, the warm-weather folks are often absent in the heating threads, but they've got great ideas in the cooling threads!
Dylly said:
As for hooking it up to the headlights, I agree, that could be a major issue, although when I had that brain wave, I was trying to think of something that would work with my command start, and I know for sure my headlights come on so now I need to find a different way of being able to tell the intake heater to start up without me being in the truck to flip a switch on and off.
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You might not be far wrong... how about running a line from your headlights to a light-duty relay, then from there to a heavy-duty relay? You could run the ground from the light-duty relay to a dash switch so you could disable/enable the circuit at will; that would let you turn on the switch at night (with no power in the circuit) and when your command-start turned on your headlights, the heater would get energized. If you left the ground switch open, the little relay wouldn't work, and so neither would the big one.

Dylly said:
Oh, I had one more comment to make on the intake air heater… I was reading somewhere online how the cummins’ intake heater works, and the way I understood is that if the PCM reads an intake temperature is below -18 degrees C it will run the element while the truck is running unless the intake temperature is above 15 degrees C… I could be misinterpreting the data though…. And that’s where my “run it constantly” idea came from.

Anyway, any thoughts and/or suggestions on the cooling system or intake heater will be much appreciated. Thanks again.
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Given the amount of airflow, I wouldn't think this would be very efficient, and would put a big load on your alternator. JMHO.

We'll help with your cooling system in the spring (right now, I'm too cold to talk about anything but heat).

If the Tstats are working properly, if they are 195*, and if you cover up well, your 6.5 will keep you warm. Mine has been fine at -40, but without the winterfront, it is 'way too cool.
 
ak diesel driver said:
Have you checked your tstats? Almost sounds like the po might have pulled them to help with overheating instead of cleaning rad fan clutch etc. With my coldfront on when I'm running down the hiway it does come up to full temp and will warm my truck nicely even at -40
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Since ive been having cooling/heating issues im not sure what "full temp" is, toss me out a number just so i know what normal actually is... also since you seem to have no summer/winter issues, what do you run for t-stats... 195 AC's?
 
JiFaire said:
You might not be far wrong... how about running a line from your headlights to a light-duty relay, then from there to a heavy-duty relay? You could run the ground from the light-duty relay to a dash switch so you could disable/enable the circuit at will; that would let you turn on the switch at night (with no power in the circuit) and when your command-start turned on your headlights, the heater would get energized. If you left the ground switch open, the little relay wouldn't work, and so neither would the big one.

If the Tstats are working properly, if they are 195*, and if you cover up well, your 6.5 will keep you warm. Mine has been fine at -40, but without the winterfront, it is 'way too cool.
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Thats exactly the kind of system i was thinking about for the intake heater, using the headlights to initialize then flip it over to the battery for the heavy current, just wasnt sure how to make it work, thanks for the excellent idea.

As for the winter front... if everything was working properly would my grill inserts be enough? .. or should i be tossing a beer box in behind the grill to help out regardless?
 
your grill inserts should be enought i am in northern ontario canada and last januaryand february -40 was a heat wave my 99 with the inserts was no problem it stayed warm
 
"but if I ever put my foot into it enough to start blowing black it would climb its way up to 100 in a hurry and was reluctant to drop"

With the diesel blowing black smoke for any length of time spells melt down. This means the engine isn't getting enough air for the amount of fuel and the exhaust temperatures will soar quickly causing damage.

Make sure the air flow is not restricted ie air filter and that the turbo is working properly. There is lot on this site about that.
 
Mudbath said:
"but if I ever put my foot into it enough to start blowing black it would climb its way up to 100 in a hurry and was reluctant to drop"

With the diesel blowing black smoke for any length of time spells melt down. This means the engine isn't getting enough air for the amount of fuel and the exhaust temperatures will soar quickly causing damage.

Make sure the air flow is not restricted ie air filter and that the turbo is working properly. There is lot on this site about that.
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By blowing black i mean the shot of black it coughs out as the turbo spools up for a fraction of a second... it doesnt do it constantly, once its spooled it burns clean.
 
My 95 has grille inserts and it runs at 70 to 75 C also and i have to run it on low it blows out all kinds of heat and in surrey here its been down to about - 8 at night lately, but my truck heater is HOT.

James
 
Surrey cold isn't Alberta/Saskatchewan cold. -35* C here today with wind chill.:eek: -41* C tonight with wind chill (actual temp tonight -29* C) There will no doubt be a few brass monkeys checking into emergency tonight!!!:bigeyes::bigeyes:
 
Yep...gonna be cold...calling for -50*C here tonight with the windchill.....trucks are plugged in...
 
I'm starting to think that it might not necessarily be that the thermostats are pulled out, but they could just be screwed, and stuck open... i just took the truck for a cruise... i know its cold out (-31 *C) but the needle still just picked up off the 70 degree mark, and not even close to blowing hot, just luke warm air, so tomorrow i'm going out to grab a couple 195 AC's, and toss them in when i go home for Christmas break in ~ a week at the same time as i install my 4" exhaust, new starter, and gauges (if the gauges are here in time).
 
If it runs hot in summer and cold in winter it is probably sticking.
I came home from Brooks today (-26*C) and had the heater temp at about 5 clicks less than full and was toasty in the cab. Gauge showed about 90*C IIRC.
 
NVW said:
If it runs hot in summer and cold in winter it is probably sticking.
I came home from Brooks today (-26*C) and had the heater temp at about 5 clicks less than full and was toasty in the cab. Gauge showed about 90*C IIRC.
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That long and boring Hwy 36? Been there done it.):h
 
FWIW alot of the Dodge/Cummins guys yank the grid heaters out because they feel they can get more airflow and the Cummins doesn't really need it so they should be easy enough to find used. Interesting idea.....
 
Acesneights1 said:
FWIW alot of the Dodge/Cummins guys yank the grid heaters out because they feel they can get more airflow and the Cummins doesn't really need it so they should be easy enough to find used. Interesting idea.....
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Could you yank the one out of yours and send it to me?:D:D:D
 
NVW said:
If it runs hot in summer and cold in winter it is probably sticking.
I came home from Brooks today (-26*C) and had the heater temp at about 5 clicks less than full and was toasty in the cab. Gauge showed about 90*C IIRC.
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Very excellent, I missed my gas up until this point, I've been told sometimes in town these things may have trouble getting hot, but i know for a fact mine doesnt on the highway, last time i was on a 2 hour trip (couple weeks ago) at - 15*C it certainly didnt get close to 90, i'd say 75 would be pushing it. Cant wait to get the thermostats in, and now i know for sure there would be no point to running an intake heater constantly... if the engine is running at 90* the conduction & convection from the hot intake to the intake air would easily warm it up to where a intake air heater would be pointless while driving. Still would be nice for those cold starts though.
 
Good luck and stay warm in those prairies boys and girls , i am defiantly not complaining out here its blue sky's and about -8 or so i love it , much better than the rain, but that said i have noticed every year less and less rain in the winter here i am waiting for that California weather to trans plant up here,

James
 
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