New to Dodge and New to Diesel

[ArmyASU09]

First a little background I just bought a 2005 Dodge Ram 2500 5.9 Diesel. The truck spent most of its life thus far in Arizona. I am in the Army and moved to Alaska. The truck is completely stock except a tool box and a block heater plug that I installed a couple of weeks ago.

I was told I should look into getting a cold weather grille cover to help the engine heat faster. Does anyone know where to get one and if I actually need it. It is mid 40s right now and it takes about 15 min driving average of 40 MPH to heat just below half way and never really hits half way no matter how far I am traveling or how long.

Also I want to do some upgrades to improve gas millage about 20-21 currently. Where should I start any help is welcome. Thanks for the time!

 

[ramhunter9]

Welcome to the site .. Shoot me a PM on what you are looking for , I carry everything diesel just ask the other members .. lol

But to your question .. if you have a block heater that is a plus. On mt CTD here in Illinois it gets cold not as cold as you but when I want to hope in my truck and drive I dont want to wait for it to warm up for 20 min.
So this is what I did ..
Installed 2 electric battery blankets and a trans pan heater .
Ran them all to a heavy duty power block ... so all I had to do was plug in my block heater and boom ... trans stays warm , battery's warm and also the block .

Another option I did was adding a quadzilla programer. It allowed me to start the truck and for the first 5 min it went into high idle mode allowing the truck to reach temp ALLOT quicker . And the programer also let me monitor the entire truck on one screen, plus the better MPG and HP is a plus . Adding a good air intake like a AFE also nets MPG . Along with a good exhaust .

I also ran a grill blanket .

So ... if looking for anything along them lines like said PM me and we can chat .
And welcome to RF .. your going to love it here. And thank you for your service .

 

[ramhunter9]

Here is a pic of the tuner ... now there are allot more tuners that I carry this is just the one I was running at the time .


Here is a video I did on that unit with high idle


Few pics you can see the power block I had everything heat related plunged into

 

[USMC1188]

Welcome aboard! Let's see that truck! haha

And for everything else... what he said^^^

Last winter here in Ohio, all I did was OCCASIONALLY plugged my truck in and the rest of the time, just let it warm up. I will probably run a grill blanket this year and plug it in more often

 

[Hollabakzach23]

Welcome!! Some pics are needed for sure! Show that bad boy off!! Thank you for your service!

 

[09SMOKINHEMI]

Here is a pic of the tuner ... now there are allot more tuners that I carry this is just the one I was running at the time .


Here is a video I did on that unit with high idle


Few pics you can see the power block I had everything heat related plunged into

i love that truck! one of the cleanest looking 2nd gens i've ever seen. wish i could buy one

 

[LoneStar210]

Nice truck