220 volts on Engine block heater?

[Friis]

Hi. While having removed the front bumper on the truck, which I have owned for almost 5 years, I just found out that I have an engine block heater!! The cord was zip-tied to the inside of the bumper! Now, of course it's equipped with a US style plug with ground in it, and I know that you guys have 110 volts in your houses. In Denmark and Europe in general we have 220 volts. Can anyone tell me what will happen if I just connect it anyway?

 

[DaveBen]

It will burn it self out. It might work for a few minutes at best. They don't make a 220VAC heater for these motors. Your only other choice is some sort of step-down transformer.

Dave

 

[dpantazis]

1. i would NOT run a transformer on a heating load like this element. you should be able to find a replacement heater to screw into the port that is euro 220V. the threading is 3/4" NPT which is us standard pipe thread. at the worst, you might be able to find a euro heater and adapt the pipe threads to fit it into the factory bung hole.
Euro 220 is not like out 220, they have a hot and a neutral, 220v between them.

2. synthetic oil is your friend. i almost never plug in my truck not that i switched to a full 5W syn oil.

 

[KRISTOLSON]

Funny you should ask, my boss at my old work decided he would put an outlet outside for us to plug in vehicles in the winter. He tied it into an existing outlet inside the building, problem was when he made the connection he pulled two LOAD wires instead of a load and a neutral. I had my truck plugged in 8 hours a day for a week and a half. When I would start my truck the coolant temp would already be in the NORMAL range. I had never used the block heater before, so I just thought that it was a DAMN good heater. Long story short we burned out a battery charger that was charging a tractor before we realized what he had done. BUT... my block heater is still working as good as ever.

Not saying it is a good idea, just saying it worked for 60+ hours without damage.

Not sure how your power system works, is there two 110v load wires to every outlet, like if we wired for 220v? Or is the voltage measured between load and neutral 220v?

 

[DaveBen]

Not in Denmark. Europe uses 220 VAC and not 110 VAC. I did some digging around with both Ford and Navistar (International) and could not find a 220 VAC heater. There maybe a universal block heater that runs 220 VAC, but I haven't found it yet.

Dave

 

[DaveBen]

I found a site in England that might be able to help you: http://www.kenlowe.com/pre-heaters/cars/howto.html

Dave

 

[dpantazis]

Euro 220 is one hot and one neutral just like we have for 110V service. Only difference is its 220V between the hot leg and neutral.

US 220 is 2-110 volt hots and no neutral.

Friss should be able to find a standard 3/4"NPT pipe insert heater in euro 220V over there to repalace the one that is screwed into the oil filter head. The Bristish one is BSP threads and the threadform will NOT seal going into NPT. You need a NPT threaded one.

 

[KRISTOLSON]

I wouldnt be afraid to use a transformer to run it, if you could find something rated for that kind of wattage. A step down transformer is pretty common in industrial equipment, but probably not cost effective for you.

 

[BIG JOE]

I wouldnt be afraid to use a transformer to run it, if you could find something rated for that kind of wattage. A step down transformer is pretty common in industrial equipment, but probably not cost effective for you.

X2

The element pulls +/- 1000 watts though, so as KRISTOLSON sez.. be carefull there.

How 'bout a Denmark FORD Dealer... maybe they could point you in the right direction ??

JOE

 

[Friis]

Thanks everyone... I don't want to make a big deeal of it, but it would be fu to use it now that I found it. I'm pretty sure it has never ever been used before. I'll try to find a step down transformer somewhere. I do have a little trouble starting when it is freezing, but maybe a new set of glow plugs would help.
And Joe, we don't have US Ford dealers over here. Only puny Europe Ford dealers. Thats a completely different branch. They would just shake their heads if I came to them with my truck!