Sorry, Marshall, but based on my experience with the inline
(circulating)
coolant heater in my w116 SD I have to disagree. If the motor had
fired up
any faster, even in bitter cold snaps (-37 degC was the record I
believe for
when I started it in an unheated garage), it would have jumped to life
before I turned the key.
I'm sure they all can work. I just think that the block heaters work
_best_ in our MB's. A combination of works great, cost, minimal
clutter
in the engine bay, lack of potentially leaky joints in the rubber
hosing,
and the lack of necessitating cutting into (expensive, in the case of
radiator) hoses, and minimal operating cost.
Everything but (initial) ease of installation. Once the fitting is
in place, replacing a bad one isn't that hard.
FWIW, the Cummins in my truck also has a _block_ heater. OTOH, the
genset has a heater-loop dingus about the size of a small hydraulic
cylinder. It _also_ has a long heating strip the length of the oil
pan, mounted an inch or so away from it. Between the two of them
it probably draws enough to keep a rope-pull generator busy all by
itself. I hope it doesn't _need_ all that stuff, in general!
-- Jim
