Grid Heater Delete For The 6.7L Cummins: What It Is, What It Fits, What It Costs

Which part on a built 6.7 is most likely to cost you a weekend you did not plan for?

The Grid Heater Delete for 2007.5–2024 Ram 6.7L Cummins removes one of the most overlooked failure points on a tuned or deleted Cummins — eliminating the risk of grid heater bolt failure and lowering exhaust gas temperatures along the way. Let's break it down. What the factory part does, why the bolts go, which trucks are covered, and who should leave theirs alone.

What Does The Factory Grid Heater Do On A 6.7L Cummins?

The grid heater is an intake air preheater. On a stock engine it serves a purpose, but on a tuned or deleted 6.7 it's a liability. The latest generation Cummins 6.7L Turbo Diesel is a heavy-duty pickup engine that delivers cold-weather reliability.^[2] To operate effectively and safely, an engine must continuously deliver air, fuel and lubrication to the cylinders.^[1]

Common rail fuel systems revolutionize the diesel fuel injection process in modern engines, significantly improving performance, fuel economy, and emissions control.^[3]

Where the preheater sits in the intake path

Follow the air and you will find it. Cold air comes in, the turbo squeezes it, and it arrives at the manifold on its way to the cylinders. That last stretch is the neighborhood you will be working in. You are not going down in the valley, you are not pulling a head, and you do not need a lift. What you need is clearance above the engine and a clear bench beside it. Ten minutes clearing that bench beats an hour on your back hunting for a washer you dropped.

What the part is doing on a stock engine

Why warm the air at all? Because a factory calibration is written around it being there, and the truck is expected to start and settle without drama on a cold morning. Cummins engines have been an option in RAM pickups since 1989.^[4] Decades of that partnership went into how a stock truck behaves when the temperature drops, and the preheater is one small piece of it. Give it that much credit before you take it off.

Why a built engine changes the calculation

Here's the thing. You are not running the factory calibration any more. A tune changes what the engine wants at every point in the map, and a build changes what it can do with what it gets. Parts that were sized for a stock truck stop being the parts your truck needs. That is no knock on the engineering. It is just what happens when you move the goalposts, and it is why a part that was an asset for years turns into something else entirely.

Why Do Grid Heater Bolts Break Inside The Intake Manifold?

The 6.7-liter turbo-diesel engine features improved performance and durability.^[5] The OEM grid heater mounts to the intake manifold with threaded bolts, and those bolts are known to snap off inside the manifold after years of heat cycling. A broken bolt means pulling the intake, drilling it out, and hoping the repair goes clean.

How heat cycling works on a threaded fastener

Metal grows when it gets hot. It shrinks when it cools. Do that a few thousand times to a fastener clamped at both ends and something eventually gives. In diesel engines, internal combustion results in expansion of high-temperature, high-pressure gases.^[1] All that heat has to go somewhere, and a bolt sitting in the intake takes its share every time the engine runs. Think of it like bending a paperclip back and forth — no single bend breaks it, and then one does.

What a snapped bolt costs you in shop time

Ask anyone who has drilled one out. The bolt does not break where you can see it. It breaks flush, or below flush, and now you are trying to center a punch on a surface you cannot get square to. Left-hand drill bits, an extractor set, penetrating oil, patience. That is a bench day, not a driveway hour. And if the extractor snaps off inside the hole — they do — you are past the point where a home shop finishes the job on its own.

Catching it before the intake has to come off

You cannot check a bolt you cannot see. That is the ugly part of this one. There is no warning light, no code, no noise to listen for, so the fix is not diagnosis at all. The fix is timing. Do the work while the choice is still yours, on a bench, with the intake accessible, instead of in the pits with the truck already apart and a run coming up. Which would you rather have: a planned afternoon, or somebody else's schedule?

Which Ram 6.7L Cummins Trucks Does The Grid Heater Delete Fit?

The Grid Heater Delete fits 2007.5 through 2024 Ram 2500 and 3500 pickups with the 6.7L Cummins. Does not fit Cab & Chassis models. The Grid Heater Delete is priced at $289.00. The engine was available in 2007 Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500 models beginning January 2007.^[5]

Reading the model year off your own truck

Go by the door jamb sticker and the VIN, not the badge and not the brochure. A truck sold as one model year can be built in the tail end of the one before it, and that is where people get this wrong. The half-year on the front of the range is not a typo either. A commercial-use 6.7-liter Cummins turbo-diesel engine was introduced in early 2006 with the Dodge Ram Chassis Cab.^[5] Two different launches, two different trucks, one very similar-looking engine bay.

Why Cab & Chassis is excluded

Same engine family, different truck. The Chassis Cab line is built for a different job with a different driveline behind it, and the parts list follows the job. In 2019, RAM 3500, 4500 and 5500 Chassis Cab models with the Aisin automatic increased to 360 hp and 800 lb-ft.^[6] Different ratings, different calibration, different hardware. If the badge on yours reads 4500 or 5500, this is not your part, and no amount of looking the same changes that.

Where this fitment list stops

One more line is worth knowing before you order. The high-output rating is offered exclusively in the RAM 3500 equipped with the Aisin transmission option.^[7] That matters less for a block-off than it does for your tune, but knowing which version of the engine you are working on saves a phone call later. Check the VIN first. Then check the year. In that order, every time, because a fitment mistake costs shipping and a weekend.

What Is The Grid Heater Delete And What Does It Replace?

On a Ram that is already tuned, the Grid Heater Delete is the part to fit in place of the factory assembly. This kit replaces the whole assembly with a precision billet aluminum block-off and takes that risk off the table for good.

The block-off itself

A lot of guys assume a delete means a plate and a prayer. Here's the thing. A block-off is a machined part with a job to do: seal the opening, hold torque, and survive the same heat that killed the bolts it replaced. One piece goes in where the assembly came out, and that is the whole idea. Simple is the point. The fewer separate things in a hot spot on the intake, the fewer things there are to work loose.

Grid Heater Delete | 2007.5-2024 6.7L Cummins

It's built from durable billet aluminum made to handle extreme conditions, with integrated standoffs so there are no loose spacers to fight during install — you get the block-off, all mounting hardware, and an installation guide. Read that guide before you touch a bolt. Then read it again with the pieces laid out in front of you.

Billet aluminum and the standoff design

Billet is not marketing language. It is a manufacturing method: the part is cut from solid stock instead of poured into a mold. Ask any fabricator which one they would rather bolt into a hot spot on an engine. The standoff detail is the one that saves your temper, though. Loose spacers are how a bolt gets cross-threaded, because you end up holding three things and torquing a fourth. Fewer loose pieces, fewer chances to get it wrong.

What you still need on the bench

Hand tools, a torque wrench, and somewhere clean to set parts down. That is the honest list. What you do not want is a mid-job trip for something you could have laid out first, so check the guide's list against the bench before anything comes apart. Bag your fasteners as they come out and label the bags. Ten minutes of that beats an hour of "which bolt was this one?" while the light goes.

What Should You Expect During Installation?

The first thing to do is verify you have all the parts. The Grid Heater Delete goes on the bench before anything comes off the engine. If you are missing any parts or have doubts, take a picture of everything you have received. Reach out to the support team directly via the support form.

The parts check before anything comes apart

Do it with the box open and the guide next to it. Count, do not glance. This is the five minutes that decides whether the truck goes back together tonight or sits apart until a package shows up. Everyone who skips it learns the same lesson the same way. Lay the pieces out flat, take a photo while they are laid out, and you have a record that settles any question later without a word of argument. Nobody has ever regretted the extra minute.

Working order on the intake

Cold engine first. Nobody wants a burn, and torque readings do not mean much on a hot manifold anyway. Work top down, keep fasteners in the order they came out, and give yourself enough light to actually see the threads you are going back into. If a bolt does not start by hand, stop. That is your warning, and it is the only one you get. Cross-threading a manifold turns a short job into the exact repair you fitted this part to avoid.

What to do if something is missing

Stop where you are. Do not start pulling the intake to get ahead while you wait, because a truck sitting half apart is a truck you cannot load on a trailer. Photograph the box, the packing slip and every piece laid out flat, then send it in. That is the fastest route to a replacement, because a photo answers the questions before anybody has to ask them. Then finish the coffee and come back to it.

Does Your Tuner Need To Support A Grid Heater Delete?

One requirement: your tuner must be capable of tuning with a grid heater delete, so verify that before you order. The Grid Heater Delete suits a 6.7 that is already tuned or already deleted. Call (888) 830-2588 or email sales@thedieseldudes.com and we'll confirm.

Why the tune has to know the part is gone

The calibration is expecting hardware. Take hardware away without telling it, and it keeps looking for something that is no longer there. A tune is a set of expectations written in software, and changing the hardware underneath does not update them on its own. That is the whole mechanism, and it is why this question comes before the fitment question in practice. A part that fits a truck whose tune cannot support it is still the wrong part for that truck. We get it, tuning can be complicated. Which is exactly why this is a five-minute question and never a guess.

Confirming it before you order

Have three answers ready: your year, your engine, and the name of the tune on the truck right now. Those three settle it. Write them down before you pick up the phone, because trying to recall a tune name while somebody waits on the line is how a wrong answer gets given. Do not go by what worked on somebody else's build, because tunes differ and yours is the only one that decides this. One call, one answer, then order with the question already closed instead of open on your bench. Five minutes now beats a return label later.

What Changes When The Grid Heater Comes Off?

Removing the grid heater also opens up airflow for better throttle response and lowers EGTs for improved combustion efficiency and longer engine life. Variable Geometry Turbochargers work by varying the exhaust passage area before the exhaust gas entry into the turbine wheel.^[8] The Cummins 6.7-liter turbo-diesel engine has life-to-major overhaul intervals of 350,000 miles.^[5]

Airflow through the intake path

Anything sitting in the intake is something the air has to get around. Take it out and the path is cleaner, full stop. Think of the intake the way you think of a doorway — one person walks through it easily, and it is the crowd that notices the width. On its own that is not a dyno headline, and anyone who tells you it is has something to sell. It is one of a handful of small gains that stack up on a built engine, and it is the only one on that list that removes a failure point while it is at it. Take the free ones where they show up.

Where exhaust gas temperature comes from

EGT is the number that tells you how hard the engine is working and how much heat it is making. The VGT produces optimum combustion control and a lag-free throttle response.^[5] VGTs offer versatile optimization across engine speeds and loads, aiding thermal management.^[8] Heat on this engine is a system, not a single part, and the intake side belongs to that system just as much as the turbo does. Lower the input and everything after it has an easier day.

What longer engine life actually means here

Not magic, and not a promise. It means fewer things bolted to your engine that are going to fail on a schedule whether you look after them or not. A bolt that snaps is not a maintenance item. It is a repair, and repairs are what shorten the useful life of a build far more than miles ever do. Take the scheduled failure off the list and what is left is ordinary wear you can actually plan for. Every build carries a list like that. The short one wins.

Is The Grid Heater Delete Worth It On A Competition Build?

The Grid Heater Delete lists at $289.00. Free shipping. On a Ram 2500 or 3500 that is already tuned, this one is worth doing before the bolts decide for you. Nearly 70% of all Ram 2500 and 3500 Heavy Duty pickup owners choose the Cummins Turbo Diesel as their powertrain of choice.^[9]

Driving it all, a never-before-seen torque rating of 1,000 lb.-ft. from the Cummins I-6 Turbo Diesel engine.^[10]

Who the Grid Heater Delete is for

A truck that is already tuned, already deleted, or headed that way this winter. If your build sheet has a custom calibration on it, the factory preheater is the odd one out. Sled pull truck, trail rig, dyno queen: same answer for all three. Best move? Do it while the intake is open for something else and you will barely notice the labor, because the hard part of this job was never the block-off.

Who should leave the factory part alone

The Grid Heater Delete is not the buy for a 6.7 still running its factory tune. That is not us talking you out of a sale. It is the same requirement stated the other way around, and it is the reason the tuner question comes first. Stock calibration, stock hardware. Change one and you have to change the other, so if a tune is not on the table yet, this part is not either.

The cost against the repair it prevents

Here is the honest math. Nobody can quote you the price of a broken bolt in advance, because it depends on where it breaks and who ends up drilling it out. That is precisely what makes it worth pre-empting: an unknown number is always worse than a known one, and a known one you can plan around. That is bang for your buck in the least glamorous form it comes in.