I had an epiphany on how to do a radiator flush at the same time with absolutely no mess. Two words Shop Vac. Sounds stupid but I got all the coolant out and safely contained with out so much as a drop on the ground.
As per the directions, I removed a one inch section of hose from the lower radiator hose as close to the engine as possible and installed heater with the supplied clamps.
Now when I removed the hose section I noticed excessive dirt deposits so rather than adding new coolant, I poured in this cooling system cleaner from Prestone. It says to let it cycle through the system for about 6 hours of normal driving (a week in my case). This weekend I will swap to normal 50/50 Antifreeze with Royal Purple’s Purple Ice additive.
Now as for the heater, I was told that with a block heater I’d have “Instant Heat” in the mornings. Now the temperature of the air coming out of the vents may be a few degrees warmer than ambient, it is by no stretch of the imagination HEAT. But it does do what it was designed to. I go out let the glow plugs do their thing once, and she starts right up. No misfiring, no excessively cycling the glow plugs, just start and go.