Yeah I'm just going to pay up for the Ford part. I'd hate to have to replace it again with the coolant mess I'm about to make haha. I'll post if that Kat's 28216 cord works. It would be a cheap alternative to the stock wiring that ends in the engine bay.
Metaloon - do you have a link to what cord you used with the OEM Ford heater? I might go that route but all the cords I can find are for powerstrokes and don't look like compatible.
Thanks for the writeup, that sounds very manageable. Although any opening up of a brand new engine is a little nerve wracking after only ever working on cars with 200k on the clock haha.
I like the idea of combining the oem plug quality with a better cord location. 100 buck for the plug still...
I just drove home a 2.0 ecoboost Maverick XLT fx4 AWD. So far this thing is nothing but awesome. Unfortunately the dealer did not have the optional block heater installed. Winters where I'm at in MT can get down to -30 so I'm hoping to install some level of block heater to improve engine...