Living above the 52nd parallel our winters are pretty brutal. My new Eco-Boost is new and only has 2300km on it and is having trouble after being plugged in all night. The dealer said that the cold issues was fixed with the addition of another heater in all of their f150s.

Unfortunately I have no heated garage for my truck so my question is, if anyone else lives in these types of conditions what is it that you do to deal with the extreme conditions. I hate going out and having to crank the ol girl 8 or 9 times to get it going. I have read a few topics on coolant circulatory systems but I would like some opinions first.

 

-40 can be challenge for a number of reasons:

Are you certain the block heater is working?

If you have some electrical test equipment, test it. For example, test between the leads of the block heater, (with no power supplied ) test the resistance of the heater. You should get an answer very close to zero. (like if you touch the leads of the ohmeter together). If you get a big number, or infinite resistance then you have no connection at the heater, or it has failed.

There are cords that will tell you you have connection.

There are other types of heaters to be in the heater hoses or the lower rad hoses, but for new truck the dealer should fix it.

-40 is tough on batteries. My preference is to add a small battery charger (~ 2 amp) and plug it in with the heater. Some people here will tell you to use a battery warmer, a little electric blanket. That is better than nothing.

In a past life I had a rented truck with heater hose type heater, plugged in all nite, and could not start it. I reached in (in the dark) to check the heater and burned my hand. Boosted it and it started right up. Added a charger and made it through the rest of the winter.

One funny sight on that job was 3/4 ton Ford 4x4 spun out on bare, level, frozen sand. The guy had left his hubs locked, and transfer case in 2WD. He did not have enough traction on the rear wheels to turn the front differential.

How about building fire under a 500 gallon propane tank to get it warm enough to cook breakfast. Soot on the propane tank looks bad if the safety inspector comes by.

Low temperature recorded on that job was -56 F. Keep your mitts on, and don't dip your fingers in gasoline. Its is cold.

 

I live in the south and when the temps drop to the 20's we freak out. Not knowing any more than I do about dealing with extreme cold, if I were to live up there for the winter I would probably place a fairly stout heat lamp under the oil pan at night. Just a thought.

 

Our winters get to -40 on a regular basis. Get a battery blanket. It makes a world of difference. Switching to full synthetic oil will also make a huge difference.

 

We got those temps as well. the heat blankets like stated above are a big.


You can also get them for the oil pan and tranny.

 

Thanks guys for the replies. I will defiantly look into a batt warmer. Really wish I had a garage but it's just something I can't get.

 

I just checked. I live north of the 53 parallel.