Quote: Originally Posted by athensbenz Is there an ideal length of time to plug in the block heater? 1 hr 2 hrs 3 hrs????? temperature dependent? after about 200,000 miles on a new or rebuilt engine.

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'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

Does anyone know how many watts the block heater consumes?

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Rob M
Norwich, VT USA
1980 240D Euro delivery 4 speed manual silver/blue
~160K miles

roughly 350

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'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

Athens, GA gets a handful of below freezing days, believe it or not. Recently, it has been close to 70 only to get back into the 20's a few days later. My car starts much better if I plug it in for a couple of hours on colder mornings.

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1985 300 D T - Rauchsilber (Smoke Sliver Metallic) with MB Tex Quartz 155 = Cream interior - 320K and counting!

1999 E300 TD - Silver - Just got her 3-13-15 !

the 2nd '83 300SD - Brown Metallic - traded away

1985 Limo Diesel aka "Stretchy" - Sliver - Blue Int - Sold but still in Athens

1983 300SD - Brown Metallic - Sold April 2008

1982 300 D T - Royal Blue with Tan interior - Sold

Sounds like you have a weak glow plug or two. It's worth checking if you have not done so yet. My 85 SD idles *so much better* when cold with a new set of plugs. I have no problems starting it with temps in the low 20's, the coldest we have seen here this winter, and there is little smoking now. With 3 bad GP's, anything below 50 deg. F required extended cranking and the car blew a noxious cloud of smoke out the back every morning.

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1985 300SD, 203,000 miles, dark blue

Lil Sarah says: "Poor old Grandma Blue Car...She's sad."