[Vwdiesel] How cold is it?

[William J Toensing]

Last night it got down to +15F. Local radio station said we got a foot of snow but I live about 4 miles west of Grass Valley/Nevada City & it looks more like 6 inches to me. Everything is white outside where it was previously green. It looks more like Northern Minnesota outside than Northern California.
I am now 76 years old. I moved from Minneapolis (Mpls.) to LA in 1969, at age 36. So I have plenty of experience dealing with cold weather starting problems in Minn. Headbolt & block heaters were in common use when I lived in Minn. So the Volvo could well have come the Dakotas, Minn., or Wisconsin & not just Canada. Southern Ontario, Canada is warmer in winter than Minn. Think Detroit.
Now, when should you use an engine heater? Based on my Minn. experience from a practical standpoint, you would plug it in anytime there was a possibility that your car would not start. There is also the benefit of a warm heater when you start out in the morning. From a theoretical standpoint, use of an engine heater year around would be beneficial but not practical. 
I have been car conscious all my life. Growing up in Minn. in the days before synthetic oil, it was common to need an engine overhaul at 50,000 miles but when I moved to Calif. I found that it was common for car engines to go 100,000 or more before needing an overhaul. Short trips are hard on hard on car engines, especially in cold weather. Oil would thicken up & you could hear metal parts rubbing together without benefit of lubrication. 
Amsoil got its start in Minn. & Wisc. & its best selling point was the ability to start engines in sub-zero cold weather when petroleum oil would turn to the viscosity of molasses. Back in the '40s & early '50s, the only car that would start if left outside when it was -40F, was a Ford flathead V-8. My 1940 Chev. would start down to -35F. Colder, I would then walk to school.
It was the long cold winters & & the salting of streets to remove snow that caused cars to rust out that motivated me to move to Calif.
My 1980 Dasher diesel parts car must have been around. It has tax stickers on the windshield showing it had been in Guatemala & Honduras yet when removing an alternator bracket on of our members wanted to buy, I found an engine block heater.
Bill Toensing, Nevada City, CA