Cold Weather Warm Up

Just one man's opinion; replacing the thermostant would do nothing to help warm-up unless the original was somehow defective.  The hour plug in time helps starting but won't do a lot more to warm the engine.  Partially or wholly blocking the radiator will speed the warm-up for sure, but don't be the guy who overheated his engine because he didn't pay close attention to what the engine temp was doing.  A diesel engine doesn't generate much heat until and unless it is working.  My guess is, a much longer plug-in time (say, 6 hours) would do more, but again, that's no guarantee. 

As an aside, I doubt lack of proper warm-up was the cause of the spun rod bearing in my engine.  The other bearings all looked okay other than evidence of bearing particles flowing thru the lube system and damaging them.  But I'm no expert, and as I said, just one man's opinion.

are you using 15/40 engine oil vs a straight weight oil .15/40 will give you faster lubrication at colder temps.Where I used to work the fleet was powered with propane and they circulated warm water thru the regulator to keep the propane from icing up.,in the winter we blocked off part of the radiator to make the heaters work,but these trucks were old with I think 160 f thermostats.but you still had to keep a good eye on the temp gauge as it warmed up thru the day.

I partially block off the radiator with a piece of carboard with a saucer sized hole in the middle.  I also have a real mechanical temperature gage and from what  I remember, a 160F or 180F thermostat.  I've got the gage rotated so that the needle is straight up at the thermostat opening temp.

Smalljobs wrote:

“I've got the gage rotated so that the needle is straight up at the thermostat opening temp.”

That's the old race car trick – having all the needles pointing straight up under operating conditions. That way you don't actually have to read the gauges to know what you have