A block heater was not easy for me to find in this warm state of New Mexico. A North Dakota toyota dealer gave me the name of a toyota parts distributor in California that did carry the block heaters. I gave this information to my local toyota parts dealer and they ordered one. The price was low at about $35. The installed quote was about $150 to $175 at the dealer. I thought I would give it a try. If I goofed I could put it together and then let them do it.

Someone in these forms supplied step by step installation instructions complete with pictures. It took two weeks due to the toyota parts in California being out. They searched around and found one to send to my dealer.

You do have to remove the air cleaner cover and then the housing and thats the time consumer. The Camry's block heater cavity is on the back of the block a inch or two above the cvt housing. It's on the right rear edge of the block nearest the firewall. I could see it using a drop light at night leaning over the drives side fender. I remember it was between a small radiator hose and one of he larger battery leads in the bright orange insulator.

The fellow in the forms says not use all the heat sink grease. I used it all and coated the rod well, that goes into the engine block socket. I found it was easier for me to plug the cord in first before inserting the heater. The block heater has a clip that snaps onto the block when it's fully seated.

Test so far it heats the engine to 149 degrees in a hour but thats on a 90 degree day in the shade. During the winter those plug in times will have to increase to 2 to 3 hours. It helps big time on warming the cold engine when the car sits overnight.

I hope to learn more this January and February if we have a cold winter here in the desert. It even snowed once after we moved out here.