Reducing cold start wear

ha. I'll be going to Kirkland 0w20 syn this year. Normally stick with 5w20 but it gets down to -35c where I live.

Will also use a battery tender on nights below -10c. I replaced my battery a year ago and last winter it took a beating. Always started but now I'm seeing 12.3v at cold start. Hopefully it makes it through with the tender.
 
Many people visiting Russia in the 80s remember busses and ambulances left running all night, all winter.
Much easier than starting a fire under a truck at minus 30. Mind you petrol/diesel was cents.
Oil was M10D (M8 for cars - straight 20W)- a heavy straight 30 which could go to a light 40 and still available today, not sure if they updated any of the additives.
VOA of M10DM from the russian oil club
 
I couldn’t do that I would be worried about melting something lol. I use 10W-40 year round in my truck and in the summer I put two quarts of 20W-50 Valvoline High Zinc Racing Oil with 3 quarts of Castrol GTX 10W-40 never have an issue using the straight 10W-40 in it for the winter just lifter tick.
 
Running a fleet of 2015 Ford Transit DRW diesels, go to solution was
  • OE Block heater from factory
  • Battery Tender
  • Oil Pan Wolverine stick on heater - 150W
All lines run to a single shore plug on the front corner of the driver side box on the truck.
Can't recall ever having a no start, as long as it was plugged into a working 120V outlet.
These trucks were spread all over Canada, and quite a few saw -30F starts.
 
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It's still November in Russia...

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The only way we could keep the trailer-mounted 150 kW generator running at -15F (not even that cold) was to warm the fuel by wrapping the trailer in blankets and aiming a torpedo heater under the trailer to warm the big fuel tank. If we didn't, the fuel filters would gel and the John Deere engine would surge between 900-1200 rpm. Probably not good for the pumps we were running. The engine fan blew right on to the fuel filters, ensuring that they were as cold as possible.
 
never have an issue using the straight 10W-40 in it for the winter just lifter tick.

Permit me to shell-shock you. Owners manual of my 27 year old car allows using 10w-XX down to -20C (-4F). And that's for 10W that's a dyno and from 27 years ago. Today's group III synthetic 10w oil is likely good to -30C (-22F). So, I think your statement about never having an issue with a 10w40 in southern Virginia is the equivalent of "yet yesterday you knew that tomorrow will be today". Thanks for sharing your [IN]valuable experience!
 
I installed a heater from Frostheater on my TDI VW last year.
It's one of those heaters that are installed in a coolant line that use a thermosyphon effect to allow the warmed coolant to circulate through the engine.
It works surprisingly well. The coolant temperature is up near operating temp when starting the engine even on extremely cold days.
 
I installed a heater from Frostheater on my TDI VW last year.
It's one of those heaters that are installed in a coolant line that use a thermosyphon effect to allow the warmed coolant to circulate through the engine.
It works surprisingly well. The coolant temperature is up near operating temp when starting the engine even on extremely cold days.
Just waiting on mine!
 
Many people visiting Russia in the 80s remember busses and ambulances left running all night, all winter.
That has not changed much, we still had vehicle corrals at the man camps where they kept them idling all night.

One Thanksgiving Cook out we had, we had to keep the beer stacked around the grill so it wouldn't flash freeze.

Its hard to appreciate that type of cold until you experienced it
 
Many people visiting Russia in the 80s remember busses and ambulances left running all night, all winter.
Much easier than starting a fire under a truck at minus 30. Mind you petrol/diesel was cents.
Oil was M10D (M8 for cars - straight 20W)- a heavy straight 30 which could go to a light 40 and still available today, not sure if they updated any of the additives.
VOA of M10DM from the russian oil club

Pretty stout add pack on that one! I'm sure the base oil is nothing special though.
 
That has not changed much, we still had vehicle corrals at the man camps where they kept them idling all night.

One Thanksgiving Cook out we had, we had to keep the beer stacked around the grill so it wouldn't flash freeze.

Its hard to appreciate that type of cold until you experienced it

Went skiing one time in the Pacific NW during a cold snap, temp down in the valley was in the teens F, up at the mountain it was in the negative teens F in the morning. We skiied anyway. Came back to the car at lunch, it had warmed up to around 0F. We had glass bottle sodas in the car and as soon as we took them out of the cooler they started freezing up. Apparently it was warmer in the cooler than ambient. Anyway that was my experience with flash freezing.

Oh and they don't make coolers the way they used to.

WRT: fires under the engine back in the day, that happened in the US north also. Had a school bus driver who used to drive a truck in the upper midwest in the 50s and 60s. The guy was old when he drove our bus in the 80s. He told me about lighting a fire under his truck engine and leaving it all night, waking up several times to stoke the fire. That was the only way to get them to go, he said.
 
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