Lowest Winter Temp You've Started a Vehicle?

[dishdude]

Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
-22F on January 19, 1994 I started my 1979 Buick Regal 5 liter V8 with Mobil 5w30 in the sump. It cranked slow but it started. It probably helped that I always buy the highest CCA and largest battery that will fit in my vehicles.


Funny you mention the date, I remember this day. That morning I was listening to WDVE and they picked someone up on the side of the parkway that broke down and took him to the station. The cold weather was the biggest news of the day and everyone was calling in with cars that wouldn't start and they were interviewing the guy that broke down on the air. They asked him - what was that you were driving? A k-car? And he was like, no it was a Pontiac 6000. lol

At the time I was in high school and had a k-car and it flooded the first time I tried to start it that morning, but holding it at WOT while cranking got it to start. It slowly stumbled to life and I let it be while I went back in the house and came back 15 minutes later. School was cancelled due to the extreme cold and I was just hanging out with friends.

 

[UNC054]

-17F in Michigan with 6.7L Cummins diesel, running 5w40 oil without being plugged in.

 

[bluestream]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: Bluestream
Had to kick the gas peal 10-15 times to pump some raw gas it, but it started. My friend had his dad's new Ford PU with FI, but it never started.

Yes, some vehicles with carbs could be coaxed into starting when it certainly wasn't a good idea.

exactly, and if you flooded it, you took a screwdriver down the carb throat to hold the butterfly open...

 

[mjoekingz28]

Originally Posted By: SubLGT
Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
2F..cute.

-48C (-54F)...counting windchill it was well into the high -50sC (-60'sF)...


Now that is cold! Did your tires crack?

I read on some heavy off-road equipment owner's manual that you should over inflate the tires in extreme cold. I do not know if this applies to street driven equipment or just doziers and back hoes. Shoot, I dont even know wht kind of tire pressures off road tractors and the like even run. I just know dirtbikes are pretty low and ATVs are really low (like single digit psi).

 

[kc8adu]

-27 in my old 72 ford f100.
no problem at all.wound up jumping a few nearly new cars that morning.
funny thing was the battery in it was totally dead and had been for months when i got it.
it spent a week on a trickle charger before the sg came up.i fully expected it to fail that morning.
not bad for a free truck that only needed a set of points!

 

[mjoekingz28]

Originally Posted By: 02SE


Windchill doesn't affect inanimate objects like it does warmblooded organisms. Wind will cool off a car faster than if there were no wind, but only to the ambient temperature.




Interesting.

 

[kc8adu]

road tires should warm up on their own once you start moving.
the ones on the aforementioned truck thumped a bit till i drove a few blocks.
no big deal and that was a record for around here.we occasionally get -15 though.
tires are usually rough and noisy for a bit on those mornings.mounts that are stiff till things warm up add to this.
never heard of a tire cracking unless it was rotted.
Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
Originally Posted By: SubLGT
Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
2F..cute.

-48C (-54F)...counting windchill it was well into the high -50sC (-60'sF)...


Now that is cold! Did your tires crack?

I read on some heavy off-road equipment owner's manual that you should over inflate the tires in extreme cold. I do not know if this applies to street driven equipment or just doziers and back hoes. Shoot, I dont even know wht kind of tire pressures off road tractors and the like even run. I just know dirtbikes are pretty low and ATVs are really low (like single digit psi).

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: madRiver
-28f and my 88 Jetta gli 16v had its winter oil 15w40. It stalled when I let clutch out in neutral.


I've had to slip the clutch and apply throttle to let the clutch out in neutral a few times. It's crazy when it's that cold!

 

[cmhj]

About 50 below in northern Wis. Early Jan?? 1976.

 

[ZebRuaj]

The truck said -10*f at 6.30 am this morning. Took a few extra cranks to turn over, but nothing special.

Sunday is predicted to have a HIGH of -4*F. Should be fun.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Caddy: -26 in Maine. Pump twice, turn key, started. (On a worn, neglected 165,000-mile engine with 10w40 oil...well, that was anticlimactic.) The giant 1100cca battery, no doubt, helped.
Diesel: 8v71 at -16 in Boston, not plugged in, 30-weight oil. Smoked out the whole place, but it started! (Two 1350cca Interstate group 31 batteries.)
My Cummins-powered F350 started at -10. Not plugged in, and (unlike Dodge pickups), it had no intake heater grid. (Two ~900cca Everstarts.)

 

[SubLGT]

Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
-72F near Destruction Bay, YT in January 1983….

Can you even breathe the air at those temps without freezing your lungs?

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
Originally Posted By: 02SE


Windchill doesn't affect inanimate objects like it does warmblooded organisms. Wind will cool off a car faster than if there were no wind, but only to the ambient temperature.




Interesting.


Windchill is an attempt to correlate how cold it "feels" on the basis of heat transfer. We normally think of something being colder on the basis of the temperature differential. Grab an ice cube with your bare hands, and it feels, well, freezing cold. Put on a pair of nice insulated gloves and suddenly that ice doesn't feel so cold. That is because no heat is being transferred out of your hand.

Expose bare skin to a 0F day, and it'll feel chilly. Kick up a breeze and it will feel worse. That is because heat is being wicked away from you all the faster. Turn the breeze into a wind, and it feels progressively awful.

Now if you could heat your house to 98F (give or take a degree), you could strip down and feel comfortable. Sit in front of a fan and it should not cool you. Not until you start working and making your body rise in temperature. Normally though we don't go around stark naked: our cores are well insulated, and thus 90F can feel too warm for even sitting around. Our exposed extremities may not shed heat fast enough for comfort. Add in solar heating (like if you are sitting outside) and 80F can feel too warm; but that is because your are being heated by the sun faster than you can shed heat into the 80F air (small temp differential, high solar heating).

All about heat transfer.

 

[A_Harman]

My personal best is -27F sometime in Feb of 2015. The Camaro took it like a champ on 5w30 PU.
My previous best was -25F in March of 1982 with a 1975 Vega with 10w40 in the sump. It started OK, but when I let the clutch out in neutral, it killed the engine because the trans oil was so thick. I could barely move the shifter.

 

[Tim_S]

-41F in Alaska December 1975. Had an old Dodge Van with a 318 v8 and 3-speed manual, and Quaker State conventional 10w40 in the sump. Cranked very slowly and eventually fired. Sounded horrible for the first 30 seconds or so. Drove from south of Anchorage to Fairbanks that day, where the temp was -69F (still air temp). Changed the oil that night in a heated garage to what was commonly used then in the interior; 5w-20 Quaker State conventional that had a warning on the can "NOT for extended highway driving". No plug-in's were available then around Anchorage, but were commonly used in Fairbanks. Changed the manual trans and rear diff oil to a 75w then as well. 75w, thats all. Thinnest stuff available back then up there.

 

[Smokescreen]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
-72F near Destruction Bay, YT in January 1983. Had many times of -50F to -60F while living in the interior of AK for many years, but that Yukon day was a lowest ever for me to start a vehicle. Block heaters, oil pan heaters, and battery blankets are sooooo nice.


Folks, I think we have a winner.


Yep...dang.

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted By: supton
[Now if you could heat your house to 98F (give or take a degree), you could strip down and feel comfortable. Sit in front of a fan and it should not cool you. Not until you start working and making your body rise in temperature. Normally though we don't go around stark naked: our cores are well insulated, and thus 90F can feel too warm for even sitting around. Our exposed extremities may not shed heat fast enough for comfort. Add in solar heating (like if you are sitting outside) and 80F can feel too warm; but that is because your are being heated by the sun faster than you can shed heat into the 80F air (small temp differential, high solar heating).

All about heat transfer.


A thermodynamics and heat transfer professor once asked our class how it can be 68 degrees in a room in both winter and summer, yet you can be comfortable in short-sleeves in summer or a sweater in winter.

 

[BrianF]

-40C when plugged in and about -30 ambient when not plugged in. Either way the vehicles were less than happy.

 

[hpb]

You people who live (maybe "exist" is a better word!) in those temperatures year in, year out, have my utmost respect. I don't understand how or why you do it, because I definitely couldn't. The coldest I've ever started a vehicle would be 0 degrees Celsius...

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: kschachn
Originally Posted By: supton
[Now if you could heat your house to 98F (give or take a degree), you could strip down and feel comfortable. Sit in front of a fan and it should not cool you. Not until you start working and making your body rise in temperature. Normally though we don't go around stark naked: our cores are well insulated, and thus 90F can feel too warm for even sitting around. Our exposed extremities may not shed heat fast enough for comfort. Add in solar heating (like if you are sitting outside) and 80F can feel too warm; but that is because your are being heated by the sun faster than you can shed heat into the 80F air (small temp differential, high solar heating).

All about heat transfer.


A thermodynamics and heat transfer professor once asked our class how it can be 68 degrees in a room in both winter and summer, yet you can be comfortable in short-sleeves in summer or a sweater in winter.


I contemplated tossing in humidity, but decided not to.

Couple winters ago I was part of an audit to one of our vendors; their electronic assembly room had humidity control. Want to say it was 70F and 70% RH -- maybe it was lower RH than that, but being in the dead of winter it felt like full summer in that room, as the humidity was well above the norm. A good many questions were raised while we were in that room as a result.

Originally Posted By: hpb
You people who live (maybe "exist" is a better word!) in those temperatures year in, year out, have my utmost respect. I don't understand how or why you do it, because I definitely couldn't. The coldest I've ever started a vehicle would be 0 degrees Celsius...


It's how you were brought up, and if you even like it. I've been trying to stay on my bicycle this year, and bike into the colder weather, to toughen up the body. Last weekend I went out in 22F weather (-6C), and the following day I put on some coveralls to do tires on a car at 10F (-12C). I'm just shy of a native New Englander, so I've seen a number of winters.

0F (-18C) and down is where it truly feels cold to me. That's when I try to avoid being outdoors. I prefer to hike when it is around the 20's, that is good hiking weather. Once it hits freezing I sweat too much.