I installed a block heater on my TCH just to see if it would help any on the gas mileage. I did find I could get the car in the EV mode earlier. That is if the air temp was about 50 degrees. This only helped for about a mile from the house were we live.

I worried on those 30 to 35 degree days why the engine temperature was only 85 to 100 degrees at crank up. (reading from the scan gauge)

I decided to call a North Dakota Toyota dealer. I found thats normal for a very cold day even if the block heater had been plugged in for hours. I also was told the 'new' block heaters don't work unless the outside temperature is at zero or below. Toyota found out the block heaters were fooling the cars computer. It was causing the engine not to fully warm up the catalytic converter.

I believe block heaters are designed for the cold weather states. I doubt they are needed as much with the thin full synthetic oils like, 0W-20.

 

I decided to call a North Dakota Toyota dealer. I found thats normal for a very cold day even if the block heater had been plugged in for hours. I also was told the 'new' block heaters don't work unless the outside temperature is at zero or below. Toyota found out the block heaters were fooling the cars computer. It was causing the engine not to fully warm up the catalytic converter.


Total bull crap. I have plugged mine in at 20 above temps and it makes the engine warm to the touch in an hour so I know they work well above o degrees. Stealers are better stealing from your wallet than giving out accurate info.

 

The shop foreman said, new block heaters. Could be he means those coming out on the 2008 models won't work till the temp is below zero degrees. I did not ask if the over the counter block heaters were that way.

Mine also heats the engine at any temperature. So far I have used it down to 30 degrees. I wanted to know just how hot the engine should be after a few hours of being plugged in. At 30 degrees the engine is hot to the touch but the scan gauge reads it at 100-125 degrees.. Thats about 1/4 scale on the temp gauge on my TCH. Using the BH on a 50 deg day the engine temp will read about 150 degrees.

 

The new 08 may be using a coolant heater where the one I got for my 07 goes in the hole in the cylinder head not the coolant. When starting mine (after heater has been plugged in) 1 hour, the temp gauge reads 1/4 way up but after engine runs 30 seconds comes down all the way when the cooler coolant hits the sending switch. Drive 1/4 of a block and it is up to normal operating temps so my conclusion is that it helps warm up quicker as it usually takes a 1-1 1/2 miles to warm up without the heater on.

 

rburt07 — I think your dealer is misinformed, to say the least! I'm sure that the 2008's ICE is identical to that of the 2007, and the block heaters would thus also be the same.

It's important to understand how a block heater works. It generates heat at a rate proportional to its rating in watts. These are 400-watt heaters. This heat raises the temperature of the engine block until the rate at which the block loses heat to its surroundings equals the rate at which the heater is generating heat. Then the engine block stops rising in temperature. It therefore does not reach any specific temperature, but rather the block temperature rises until it is a specific amount above the ambient temperature (i.e., the temperature of the surroundings). I find that my block heater will raise my engine block's temperature ~30 degrees C (~54 degrees F) above ambient. It takes about 2.5-3 hours to do so. This means that, given enough time, the block will ultimately reach, for example, ~84 degrees F if the ambient temperature is 30 degrees F. It will not rise any higher, no matter how long you wait! This is consistent with your readings.

By the way, the TCH's temperature gauge reads as follows, according to my ScanGaugeII:

• bottom of blue area = 35 degrees C (~95 degrees F)
• top of blue area = 45 degrees C (~113 degrees F)
• heater starts operating = 47 degrees C (~117 degrees F)
• ICE cycles "on" to provide cabin heat = 53 degrees C (~127 degrees F)
• ICE cycles "off" again = 57 degrees C (~135 degrees F)
• 1 tick mark below center of scale = normal operation indication = 60 to > 93 degrees C (~140 to > 199 degrees F)

So, over the temperature range of 35-60 degrees C, each tick mark on the temperature gauge represents precisely a 5-degree C temperature change.

The following is speculative, since I have yet to see my ICE temperature rise above 93 degrees C:

• bottom of red area = 120 degrees C (~248 degrees F)

This means that the gauge sits at 1 tick mark below the half-way point from 60 degrees C until some (as yet unknown) higher temperature above 95 degrees C, and then starts to rise again. This has probably been done to prevent users from becoming worried, as the temperature is continually rising and falling as the ICE cycles "on" and "off."

Stan

 

I thought my block heater said in the instructions it was 600 or 650 watts. By the way those installation instruction suck. The pictures and instructions in the forms are much better.

That ain't my dealer. My dealer don't know anything about block heaters. In fact I called a North Dakota toyota parts dealer to find out where they get their block heaters. Its was from a toyota parts warehouse in California. I had to give this information to my local toyota dealer to order me one.

I installed it myself. Not easy, the work was taking out the air cleaner housing and putting it all back in. The block heater was the easy part.

This is my third block heater. I had one on my '79 Olds Cutlass diesel and a 81 VW diesel.

To find toyota dealers in other states, I use the online http://www.corp.att.com/directory/ or http://yellowpages.superpages.com/profiler/abook.jsp

 

rburt07 — My block heater has "400 W" stamped on it. I believe that all the Toyota block heaters are made in Canada (mine is), and imported into the USA from Canada.

Stan

 

I did not look that close at the element housing to see if it showed the wattage. I thought I saw the wattage on the instruction sheet. The Dakota Toyota parts parts man said they are all made in Canada.