-55 Cold Start
- Thread starter Ursatdx
- Start date
A good 0w oil would have helped.
I live south of the range where it doesn’t get quite as cold(-20 to -30 a lot) and 0w40 castrol works great. Don’t even worry about plugging in the block heater. Made sure all the other fluids are extreme cold rated too.
Had 5w oil in it before and their is a big difference in start up between them.
I live south of the range where it doesn’t get quite as cold(-20 to -30 a lot) and 0w40 castrol works great. Don’t even worry about plugging in the block heater. Made sure all the other fluids are extreme cold rated too.
Had 5w oil in it before and their is a big difference in start up between them.
I personally wouldn't be using a 5w30 synthetic blend living in that environment.
I'm surprised the propane worked. He must have stored that bottle indoors until just before he lit the torch.
Wow, that was a lot of work to try and start it but goes to show that heating your antifreeze is a great option in severe cold snaps. I'm fortunate to have a block heater on my Power Stroke but rarely do I use it since I run off to TX when it gets cold in MO. I would normally plug it in when it get's down into the 20's or below. The truck coughs, spits, & sputters a bit less with the oil used for the hydraulic injectors. My old 1995 7.3L had low compression & the glow plug system was not really working well & I about never got it started below 40F. I had to plug that one in frequently.
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Wow I'm glad it only gets about -10f where I live, but only see about 0f to +10f any given year.
With -16f being the absolute coldest every 30 to 50 years.
With -16f being the absolute coldest every 30 to 50 years.
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What was truly amazing was how thick the 5w30 was at that temperature.
At -55…. That should be expected given that temperature is well below a 5w rated ability to be flow and resistance to flow.
There are guys in the oil fields who set up their whole fleet of trucks with quick connects on the heater hoses. So you drive up to a dead truck, plug your engine in, idle your warm coolant through, then fire off the victim vehicle.
That would drive me nuts, never knowing how old my coolant really is, after sharing it with everybody.
That would drive me nuts, never knowing how old my coolant really is, after sharing it with everybody.
That battery held up pretty well. He cranked it over many times and the battery just kept going for a long time. We used to jack a cold vehicle up in the front and run a knipco heater on it for quite a while and they would always start.
Battery blankets and oil pan heaters were part of life in Wyoming. Things got easier when we started cycling in fuel injected vehicles in 1985. My Civic Si did fail to start one bitterly cold morning until it'd spent a couple of hours with the oil pan heater on it. I don't miss any of that in the slightest.
I am going to Fairbanks on April 30. The most interesting place I have been is Barrow, or Utqiagvic if you prefer.
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/southern-boy-in-the-far-north.375789/
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/southern-boy-in-the-far-north.375789/
Coldest we usually see here is -35 to (rarely) -40. Fuel injected cars usually start as long as the battery is good. But they sure don’t sound good if the block heater wasn’t used.
Once I underway in those temps the car rides as stiff as a board. I’m missing summer weather just texting this.
Once I underway in those temps the car rides as stiff as a board. I’m missing summer weather just texting this.
Aaaand... the foam in the seats get so hard it feels like you're sitting on a park bench! Thankfully this winter has been pretty mild so far.
Not something used on the slope that I've seen. We use heaters or leave it running.