She Started, BUT She Be A Cold Bitch...

savatage1973

Addicted Member
I have a diesel P/U truck--2016 Silverado 3500HD, 4X4, dually, quad cab with all of the max towing/hauling packages. Living where I do, I am pretty religious about plugging in the block heater at night during the winters. Last night (like a dumbass) I forgot--woke up this morning to -1 F and -20 F wind chills. Hit the key and she started; however, getting her warm was a whole different story. Due to the huge coolant capacity, external tranny cooler and external oil cooler, it took well over a half hour to actually warm up--you could watch the temp gauge climb and the second the thermostat opened, you could watch it plummet--cabin temperature cycling accordingly.

Well--at least she started...
 
Weather forecasted for -40f to -54 f with wind for today and maybe tomorrow.Back in the 80,s I worked with a guy that had a diesel rabbit and he let it idle all night long in the winter because we had no plugins at the steelplant.None of the large vehicles are ever turned off in the winter there.And I mean large vehicles!
 
With the tiny amount of fuel a diesel, especially a little one like the Rabbit had, it would probably make more sense to let it go vs risk having it not. The other thing you get to worry about when it gets real cold is fuel gelling. Not so much a problem if its running though, you get warm return fuel to the tank that helps keep it liquid. A block heater won't help with that unfortunately.
 
we used to add petrol to the diesel to stop it waxing in cold weather . a whole gallon went into the lorries when filling the tanks up.
 
Someone will probably chime in.
There was a company (in the eighties?)
A lot of semis with sleepers would idle the engine all night, (heat, ac, electric).
The marketed this little deisel engine (Not sure if it was a generator) but it ran everything overnight from the main fuel tanks but used something like 85% less fuel than idling the Cummins (or whatever) v8 all night.
Probably ran the block heater as well :idea:
 
During our recent -20 snap, we saw about half a dozen semis stopped by side of the freeway in a 60 mile stretch. If I had to guess, their fuel gelled.
 
likely onan, who is owned by cummins, it was a sort of APU and was required in the nazi states that didnt want trucks and insisted trucks not idle at night.

remember the days of starting the 77 K100 with a cummins, hot the hotshot button as she cranked and cranked and cranked 4 batteries each the size of a hibachi...
 
VW beetle 35 miles to work and back, when it was -25 F

I had a Beetle in high school and for a while after. Doesn't get that cold here, but even with good heat exchangers it had miserable heat. Part of my drive was a 30 mile shot up the highway at ~70. It got nice and toasty getting off the highway for the 2 miles between there and my destination.
 
Do you use a radiator cover? I use one on my trucks (class 3, class 5 and a class 8 truck) and they decrease warm up times by up to 50% and you do not have that rapid cool-off and temp surge as the thermostat opens. I use this in combination with block heaters. Adjustable covers are best. They allow you to cover or expose more radiator so you can keep your engine cooling in the "sweet spot" until you are into a warmer climate. Just don't forget about it being installed!

https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/im...d48c912bf0f4b650/version/1380397871/image.jpg

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/LG8AAOxygj5Sg9Gj/s-l300.jpg
 
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Someone will probably chime in.
There was a company (in the eighties?)
A lot of semis with sleepers would idle the engine all night, (heat, ac, electric).
The marketed this little deisel engine (Not sure if it was a generator) but it ran everything overnight from the main fuel tanks but used something like 85% less fuel than idling the Cummins (or whatever) v8 all night.
Probably ran the block heater as well :idea:


Yes, they still use Aux Power Units, I have one on my PB.
 
Buried too deep to take photos, but out in the warehouse I have different surplus pieces of military tank and truck winterization kits. One is a copper disc about 12" in diameter that has an electrical hookup on the edge that was used to warm something up in the vehicle.. The other is a 24V pump that was used to circulate the anti-freeze in the cooling system through an oil fired heater to warm the engine before trying to start. At one time I also had the wire impregnated rubber heating pads that sat under the batteries to warm them, too.

Never thought I'd sell any of them - I was wrong!
 
When I had an 89 Festiva I used to insulate in front of the radiator with cardboard and seal the front grill with black plastic (the car was almost that colour) to get it to warm up which it did, but below -17 F or 0 F it had too small an interior heater so I wore a skidoo suit! Used a block heater of course & Mobil 1 synthetic. Even put synthetic ATF in the manual trans which greatly helped in shifting at -30 and below. Tires had to have extra air added when cold & some garages now use nitrogen to help with that issue. Tires feel square for the first few blocks when it gets down to -30!

Saw -52 C /61.6 F (no wind chill) in about 1996 one morning!

After going through 3 bad block heaters when first new I discovered tarping and insulating the front end with old blankets over the hood first worked nicely with an old interior heater under the hood just in case!
I found doing that saved a tank of gas per month on my 30 miles a day commute to work as it warmed up much faster. I had to get it warmed up to keep the windshield clear. I generally didn't tarp it when it was -15 C /+5 F or above unless windy.
 
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When I had an 89 Festiva I used to insulate in front of the radiator with cardboard and seal the front grill with black plastic (the car was almost that colour) to get it to warm up which it did, but below -17 F or 0 F it had too small an interior heater so I wore a skidoo suit! Used a block heater of course & Mobil 1 synthetic. Even put synthetic ATF in the manual trans which greatly helped in shifting at -30 and below. Tires had to have extra air added when cold & some garages now use nitrogen to help with that issue. Tires feel square for the first few blocks when it gets down to -30!

After going through 3 bad block heaters when first new I discovered tarping and insulating the front end with old blankets over the hood first worked nicely with an old interior heater under the hood just in case!
I found doing that saved a tank of gas per month on my 30 miles a day commute to work as it warmed up much faster. I had to get it warmed up to keep the windshield clear. I generally didn't tarp it when it was -15 C /+5 F or above unless windy.
We had a Ford Aspire, same car mechanically as the Fester, and in the winter I would block about 3/4 of the radiator with cardboard. Even doing that and having a new thermostat in it, it still had a shitty heater when it was really cold. I could leave it run in the driveway for 20 minutes, and it'd still be barely off the cold mark. It just wouldn't make good heat until it was driven for a while. I don't know why it never occurred to me that a block heater would be a good idea.:dunno: My 3 banger Geo Metro had an even worse heater.:no:
 
Someone will probably chime in.
There was a company (in the eighties?)
A lot of semis with sleepers would idle the engine all night, (heat, ac, electric).
The marketed this little deisel engine (Not sure if it was a generator) but it ran everything overnight from the main fuel tanks but used something like 85% less fuel than idling the Cummins (or whatever) v8 all night.
Probably ran the block heater as well :idea:[/QUOTE
I work on locomotives. A lot of big companies use auxiliary 4 cly engines in the same way. They use heat exchangers to keep the main engine oil and coolant warm. Otherwise they’d run a huge engine at low idle for days, even weeks on end.
 
Another ford never heated up vehicle.Mine was a f250 with the 300 -6 ,rad totally blocked off front and rear.Barely livable after an hour!Now my f150 2003 is a blastfurnace and will heatup at -40f zero problems .Might take 15 minutes.Cools down just as fast though like today.Frankly the 1980,s were a very forgettable time for cars and trucks .
 
My vw Jetta tdi takes about 30 min to heat up in weather below 0. Thank god those Germans built a car around nuclear powered heated seats. You’ll start to sweat before the windshield is thawed.
 
As a younger man in ND, before fuel injection, we judged a "good" car as one that would start after sitting all night at about -20F.
Lower than that, the oil was silly putty and the battery just couldn't crank. Gas just doesn't vaporize worth a shit on steel that far down.

At -40, IF you had it plugged in and she fired up, you let her turn nice and slow until the silly putty could squeeze up to the bearings and such.
Oh and at -40, you had a good heater IF it could keep the windshield open enough to see to drive.

I had a college exam once. 2 hour final. -40 outside, Nothing but an open air parking lot on top of the highest hill for the car to sit in the wind.
No power line near it.
After warming the car and driving it there and parking, I shut it off, wrote that test as fast as possible, nearly 2 hours, and the car juuuuuust started.
It was close.

Yeah, the good old days.
I was one of God's Frozen People.
 
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