how can you tell if the block heater is on/working?

Put your hand on it after it's plugged in, you should feel it get warm.

i feel stupid, i found out my problem was that the outlet that i was plugging in to had no power.lol its getting into the 20s and 30s at night down here, i know thats not cold compared to people up north, but its houston, its feels chille when it gets down to 70 degrees lol

To keep from that problem I bought one of those cords that has the light in the end of it for when I plug in at work..... makes it nice that way, no guessing, or popping the hood in the cold morning wind!!

Don't bother with the block heater unless you are zero or below.

Very true. I started mine the other day after sitting two days. The high was 3 degrees, and the low -7 degrees. I would have had it plugged in, but I was visiting friends. Anyway, started right up, and was warm pretty quick too!!

Talked to a Chrysler engineer in Detroit this weekend. He said they took diesel trucks to Alaska (the new 24 valve engine) and they would reliably start at -25 F with no heaters in use. I hooked up the block heater and it doesn't seem to make much difference for my 10 minute drive to work. I start getting heat when I get to work:mad: either with or without the heater. This is at 20-30 degrees F. My brother in law in Michigan says his works great though at their cold temps.):h

Ten minute drive.....that is the problem right there. The trucks take a while to warm up. Sure you can start it and let it warm up first, but as soon as you take off you start opening up the thiermostat and circulating that colder water through. Look at how much radiator fluid these suckers have, takes more than ten minutes to warm all of it up. Not to mention the fact that the Dodge grille is about 4 feet across!! Thats a lot of cold air rushing in. I've noticed mine to start to cool off when I first get on the highway pushing all that air through there. I have the cold weather package, which included the radiator cover. Mine warms up in half the time. You might try the old cardboard in front of the radiator and see what happens.

for some reason when mine gets cold like in the 40s and 30s, it dosent start good so i plug it in and it starts fine, when i start it cold it shakes and sounds terriable

Yeah, I too believe the 10 minute drive to work is not letting the truck get warmed up. Even with the block heater on for 2-3 hours before leaving. I drove from KY to Detroit the other day at 0 to 15 degrees the whole way. Once the truck warmed up the temp gauge stayed right on 195 for the trip with no radiator cover. Have been thinking of a cover for short trips and may give that a try. It's the nature of the beast to take awhile to warm up the large capacity cooling system so I don't worry about it.