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Tonight I installed a block heater on my Ranger with the help of my new basement renters John and Marcus, henceforth referred to as "The Morlocks". The instructions had a happy face next to a service technician disconnecting the battery, raising the truck on a lift, then draining the coolant through the radiator drain before removing the freeze plug. I went the sad face route and just punched the plug out, resulting in a bath of warm coolant which I frolicked around in looking for the piece I punched out. Unable to find it, I decided it was either lodged in the frame somewhere, or stuck inside the engine at a position most suited to jam the intake of the water pump. Since I don't have an optical camera wire to check for option #2, I decided to just hope for the best and stick the block heater inside the hole. The Morlocks and I then spent another 30 minutes deciphering the wire routing diagram to determine where to route the wires to the battery heater and block heater from the AC plug. I'm definitely planning on posting these directions, they are worth the read. After everything was reassembled, I filled the coolant overflow with a gallon of coolant and watched it go nowhere. Figuring the thermostat needed to heat up and open, I ran it past the "normal" range and into "hot" at which point I assumed the plug had plugged the water intake and was slowly destroying my water pump. Fortunately the Morlocks convinced me it was vapor lock before I got the engine out and sure enough after it cooled down the reservoir went empty and the happy face light came back on in my dash. The end result is a pre-warmed truck and a new appreciation for language-neutral instructions. The celebration of my block heater install at box bar was cut short when the Morlock vehicle wouldn't start due to the lights being left on. Fortunately Joseph arrived from Florida to give us a jump and send us on our way. Holy crap this is a long read!
UPDATE: scan of the crazy instructions