Real life cold weather start

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jan 13, 2018
Messages
5
Location
Montana
Thursday morning -29F here in North Dakota. No block heater. My 2006 Dodge Ram 1/2 ton cranked for about 2 seconds then fired right up.
Mobil 1 Extended Performance synthetic 0-20W.
 
I once hand-crank started a 1951 Farmall "M" in -34*F
with straight 30 in the sump,
and "summer gas" in the tank.

Beat that!
grin.gif
grin2.gif
lol.gif
 
Pipes need to be pretty far in the ground and in the walls they need lots of insulation. Plus leave the water trickle. Doing that as I type in one of my bathrooms that's prone to getting frozen pipes.
 
It was 65F this morning and my V8 4Runner fired right up with 0w-30 synthetic.

In fact, I like the idea that the CPU starts the engine. You turn the key to start the process and the CPU takes over. You can keep the key turned or not. It makes no difference.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
How do you keep pipes and such from freezing and breaking at those temps? We have trouble @+25f.

Houses are designed and built for that temperature, and lower. Water pipes and sewer lines are several feet underground. Walls and attics are well insulated. Water pipes are positioned so they have insulation behind them.

Soil freezes several feet down. You have to have footings for any foundation well below that depth in order not to have frost heaving - movement of the foundation with resulting shifting and cracking.

The strangest situation I know of was during a particularly cold winter in Winnipeg when many of the incoming water lines froze. I guess they just weren't deep enough. The city was still thawing out those lines in early summer. People ran garden hoses from their neighbours so they'd still have running water.

In Britain sewer lines are often on the outside of buildings. They can freeze up if temperatures are well below freezing for a few days.

Buildings are designed for the expected conditions. And if the conditions are outside the expectations, trouble can ensue.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
How do you keep pipes and such from freezing and breaking at those temps? We have trouble @+25f.


In our farmhouse in North Dakota, The pipes (galvanized) were all in the basement (semi-heated). There was one section under the bathroom (crawlspace) that had troubles sometimes, but pipe insulation fixed it.

Pipes have to be buried 6' down.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
How do you keep pipes and such from freezing and breaking at those temps? We have trouble @+25f.
that's because you don't know how to build a house. Builders do a lot of stupid stuff in the south example running a inside pipe in an exterior wall.
 
Last edited:
We had -31f actual temp on our outdoor weather station last week, one morning. Central MN. All homes we've ever owned (7) have the water lines running under the footings of the foundation, at least 8' down. One year with little snow the frost went down almost 6' so some folks had issues but we never have. Our kitchen and bath water lines come up from the basement on the warm side of walls. The very old homes with poor insulation do that trick of letting water trickle out of faucets and open cabinet doors to let warm air around sinks. Heat tapes poorly installed cause a lot of fires but can work if monitored closely.
Coldest ever temp here was -56f in 1972, amazing that buses still picked up kids, school was not cancelled, life goes on.
I had a 74 Chevelle Laguna 400V8 sit in Duluth airport parking lot for a week in Jan of 1978, temps were below -20 every night. My car started but the first few cranks were sure scary but then it spun up and started, I was using Amsoil 10w-40. If the engines are tuned up, good gas, good battery, they should start as long as you dont have straight 60w oil in them
smile.gif
 
32F outside this morning. 50s in my unheated garage. My Mazda 3 started right up with IDEMITSU 0w20 but man was the transmission gears crunchy for about 10 mins until they warmed up.
 
Originally Posted By: dave123
Originally Posted By: Chris142
How do you keep pipes and such from freezing and breaking at those temps? We have trouble @+25f.
that's because you don't know how to build a house. Builders do a lot of stupid stuff in the south example running a inside pipe in an exterior wall.


We run into this all winter in the resturant repair business. Many of these chains that originate in California and florida do not change the design of the buildings placed in the midwest and then all the pipes freeze and bust.
 
My dad always used battery heaters on the battery back when we lived in Fargo back in 60;s and 70's. We had big V8 vehicles with 10w40 in the sump and they always cranked right up even in the -20 and -30 temps. He tried block heaters and even oil dipstick heaters , but liked the battery heaters best because that extreme cold would really sap the battery and the battery heater wrap was about 100 watts but enough to keep the battery in good shape. batteries are probably made better now with more CCA but still a battery heater is a good thing to have. Fairly cheap (about 25 to $30 at most any auto or farm store and easy to install. I have them on 2 of my vehicles, both Hyundais. I need to buy one for the forester.
 
I ran the house last weekend on road diesel. Not for the first time. No big deal, but the water at the bottom of the tank froze. Clearing the line was a PITN. Renovations are in order come summer. Cars running 0W20, no problems. At 7f, it took 4 pulls to light off the snowblower. I'm in better shape than usual.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: BJD78
My dad always used battery heaters on the battery back when we lived in Fargo back in 60;s and 70's. We had big V8 vehicles with 10w40 in the sump and they always cranked right up even in the -20 and -30 temps. He tried block heaters and even oil dipstick heaters , but liked the battery heaters best because that extreme cold would really sap the battery and the battery heater wrap was about 100 watts but enough to keep the battery in good shape. batteries are probably made better now with more CCA but still a battery heater is a good thing to have. Fairly cheap (about 25 to $30 at most any auto or farm store and easy to install. I have them on 2 of my vehicles, both Hyundais. I need to buy one for the forester.


+1. I used to be a big believer in block heaters but nowadays a good synthetic and a battery warmer is the way to go.
 
I use battery warmers with just regular conventional oil and they start easily even in sub zero temps. we had a couple of mornings of -20 just last week and my Sonata and Tuscan have battery heaters and they cranked up like it was summertime. The Subaru struggled some and cranked a bit slower than normal. I will get a battery heater for it before next winter. Of course all of my vehicles are 4 cylinders which are easier to crank over in sub zero temps. The thing with coolant heaters is that you have to cut the heater hose or lower radiator hose to install them which creates potential for a coolant leak. Lots of people around here use the battery heaters, just got to remember to unplug the things before you take off... yes been there done that a time or 2 so far not this winter though. LOL!!
 
Originally Posted By: BJD78
The thing with coolant heaters is that you have to cut the heater hose or lower radiator hose to install them which creates potential for a coolant leak.


A proper block (coolant) heater will thread right into the block.

e61288ba6ac297634326d559b00cbcfe.gif
 
Ok, looks like the design has changed a good deal since the ones I recall from back in the 60' and 70's they had to fit inside the lower radiator hose or heater hoses. They looked like the following:https://www.amazon.com/Kats-14500-Lower-Radiator-Heater/dp/B000I8XD0S/ref=pd_sim_auto_1
 
Pretty kewl dude. You're the second poster I've seen today that signed up today and posted about some kind of Mobil product.
smile.gif
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top