Ratch - that's good to hear, I noticed you're in PA which makes me think your situation would be similar to mine being from WV. I've never used a freeze plug before, are they threaded? I found where I think it would go on the intake side of the block below the head about midway between the cylinders. It looks like a plug I might be able to pull out with pliers. Nothing to put a socket or screwdriver to. Is this where the block heater would go?
Depending on how it starts this winter when it's cold, I might put the block heater on a thermostat and only run it when it's very cold. Do you know what size block heater I would need? I've been looking all evening and not having much luck.
thanks for your help
Yeah, that's probably a good place for it. I remember there being freeze plugs on each side, and the starter-side plugs being a little higher. Putting one on the lower side is probably better for convective coolant flow. I looked into doing this for mine a while back, but opted against it because of the power consumption.
Freeze plugs can be dug out.
Here's the first vid that came up on youtube about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZg5J0nQ6H0
It sounds oversized, but a 1500 watt unit will keep your genset nice and toasty (and your electric bill high). You will probably be fine with less than a 1000w heater. They all should operate by internal thermostat to maintain water temp. I use 1500 watt external block heaters on Cummins 6BT's or 4BT's, or a little Ford 6-cyl gas engine (even though a gasser doesn't really need a heater for starting assistance).
One thing to keep in mind is that if you go too small, the heat stays in a smaller area, which means as the coolant cycles past it, it cools off faster, which makes it cycle past the heater again, and keeps your heater running all the time. I wouldn't go larger than a 1500 watt, because it might be too much heat concentrated in a small place before the thermostat opens, but maybe not...I don't really know.
I think putting it on a t-stat is a good idea. A block heater is useless when the power goes out, but since you don't know when the power will go out, you kind of need to leave it on there all the time for it to be ready when needed. But a stat that keeps it off until it's like 10 degrees f would keep the "on" times to just when you're most likely to need more heat than the preheaters/glow plugs will provide.
There's a 1500 watt freeze plug block heater for an LPW2/3/4 on a particular auction site right now. That's the engine used in the 802/803.
