I live in MN and have found that the dipstick heaters mainly just thin the oil..which is good...but not nearly as good as a block heater.

The magnetic heaters do the same unless you can find a flat spot on the block itself to attach them..in which case they transfer some heat to the block...but still nowhere near as good as a block heater.

If you really want to be prepared for cold weather starting...and I can't hardly believe that you will need to heat the engine in Atlanta...have a block heater installed. But first ..like a previous poster suggested the actual blockheater may be there even though the plug in cord is not. The cords are probably not available separatly though. Maybe you can go to the junkyard and find one though..they seem to have the same configuration for all block heaters from what I have seen.

Dana

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Dana Linscott
Vegoil converted truck...vegoil converted 1987 190DT, 300 series next.

http://vegoilconversions.netfirms.com/