-25c this morning, vehicle will not start

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Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
Originally Posted By: Bluestream
Can you push it into a garage that is warm? Plug in the block heater maybe...The old timers used to drain the oil out at night and put it on a stove to keep warm.

On my 1975 Dodge Van I had to slide a Coleman camp stove under the oil pan for a few hours at -40. She fired right up after that.

I always had trouble with remote starters starting engines at extreme low temps. Not sure way that was, but I dont use them any more.


Sounds like a good way to burn the car down.


I once used a burning diesel-trenched rug under the oil pan to get my w123 diesel started. -20° and 15w-40 in an asthmatic 2 Liter naturally aspirated diesel are not a good combination.


Btw, the russian Ural trucks have/used to have a hook under the engine to hold a gas torch in place facing the oil pan.
cool.gif
 
Originally Posted By: hemitom
So !!!! get that thing fired up yet . ???


Forgot to update. Got her fired up on Thursday. The culprit: frozen gas line. Had to take line off to defrost, reassembled and fired right up. Only had a 1/4 tank of gas but was too lazy to drive to fill up at 11PM. Poured in a another bottle of gas line antifreeze since it was going to be -30c overnight.

Friday morning was -26c and I went to start her, no go. Gas line froze again.

Was about -6c this morning and it started no problem. Sounds like I got a bad tank of gas maybe? There is definitely water moisture in the tank. No hesitation around town or on highway though.

Should I siphon the rest of gas out and refill with fresh tank? Maybe something like Sea Foam motor treatment? It claims it can control moisture in fuel.
 
Maybe you could get a gallon of denatured alcohol from a paint store or something? I hate to add that to E10 though.

I'd stop getting gas where you get gas, that's for sure.
frown.gif


I would run it until it runs out and start over.
 
Originally Posted By: Barwich
Was about -6c this morning and it started no problem. Sounds like I got a bad tank of gas maybe? There is definitely water moisture in the tank. No hesitation around town or on highway though.

Should I siphon the rest of gas out and refill with fresh tank? Maybe something like Sea Foam motor treatment? It claims it can control moisture in fuel.
-6 C? Yay, it should come this way eventually! In the days before E10, a bottle of gas-line antifreeze (methyl hydrate IIRC) was a lifesaver.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Maybe you could get a gallon of denatured alcohol from a paint store or something? I hate to add that to E10 though.

I'd stop getting gas where you get gas, that's for sure.
frown.gif


I would run it until it runs out and start over.


I want to drive until tank get below 1/8 of tank but I am always paranoid about fuel pump running 'dry'.

About the gas station, 95% of the time I get my gas at the local Superstore Gas Bar. In the last 3 years I've probably gone through 300+ tanks between vehicles in my sig and the company van. Not one problem, until now. Even filled up there in my RAV4 a day after I filled up the Montero.

Could I have gotten some bad gas at an independent station in the summer and it didn't show up until now?
 
If you get zero ethanol summer gas you'd notice poor performance on the first tank of winter gas when it grabs all the water you accumulated all summer.

But you probably have, and have had, ethanol this whole time, so it should stay dry.
 
Originally Posted By: Bluestream
Originally Posted By: Number_35
There have been a lot of good suggestions so far.

One of my co-workers bought a new Mitsu Outlander a few years ago - shockingly, the vehicle was not equipped with a block heater even though it was sold here in Winterpeg. The salesman told him he didn't need one.


In one of the coldest cities in the country?
"Naw you dont need a block heater, these things start right up...just sign here..."

lol.gif

Imagine a car salesman saying such a thing!
shocked.gif


I've tried to tell him that even if the car will start w/o a block heater, the extra wear & tear on the engine, battery, starter, and alternator make the cost of the block heater & the electricity inconsequential. Not to mention the fuel savings when the coolant starts @ +20 C rather than -20 C!
 
Originally Posted By: Number_35
-6 C? Yay, it should come this way eventually! In the days before E10, a bottle of gas-line antifreeze (methyl hydrate IIRC) was a lifesaver.


Aye, I feel for you guys. Visited winterpeg once in January few years back and it made Edmonton winters feel like peanut butter jelly time.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
If you get zero ethanol summer gas you'd notice poor performance on the first tank of winter gas when it grabs all the water you accumulated all summer.

But you probably have, and have had, ethanol this whole time, so it should stay dry.


I think all of our 87 octane has 10% ethanol blended. Just baffles me where that moisture came from.
 
Originally Posted By: Barwich
Originally Posted By: Number_35
-6 C? Yay, it should come this way eventually! In the days before E10, a bottle of gas-line antifreeze (methyl hydrate IIRC) was a lifesaver.


Aye, I feel for you guys. Visited winterpeg once in January few years back and it made Edmonton winters feel like peanut butter jelly time.
I lived in Edmonton for four years, 1970-74. (Moved away in September and missed the opening of the Northlands Coliseum by just days - saw all my Oilers games in the old Cow Palace.) Agreed, great city with generally much milder winters than here!
 
Originally Posted By: Barwich
I think all of our 87 octane has 10% ethanol blended. Just baffles me where that moisture came from.

Stuff happens. When a fairly large, mostly empty tank is at a reasonably high ambient temperature with some decent humidity in the air, and then gets hit by a nice winter blast, all that humidity is going to condense. I would wager that's what happened to you. I'm rather careful with my G37 and the heated garage about trying to keep the fuel tank somewhat full, particularly if it's going to be parked for ten or twelve hours in -30 like has been the norm lately.

Remember how warm the weather was immediately before the cold snap, and how high the humidity was.
 
Originally Posted By: ejes
O2 sensor? Should throw a code though.

O2 sensor is not in the equation during "open loop" mode.
I never hear of frozen fuel anymore with the alcohol in gas today.In the winter, I never let the tank get below 1/2 and 1/4 in the summer.You need to drain the tank and refill. I would still get those worn plugs changed because it takes way more electrical energy to fire wide gapped and rounded electrodes on worn spark plugs.
 
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