[Vwdiesel] Cold!

[Val Christian]

My 1978 1.5 Rabbit did -20 to -28 regularily.  If you ran the blower and 
lights too much before shutdown, a jump might be needed.  I had it in -38F
once, and just let it idle overnight.  As I recall the battery was a Group
40, larter upgraded to something a little bigger.  With the slow glow plugs,
I used two glow plug cycles before even trying to start.  That took forever...
maybe 40 seconds, maybe a minute.  
The 1979 Rabbit did about the same, even though the #1 cylinder glowplug
was broken off for most of it's life.  Years later, and with over 180K on
the cylinder head, it came off for valve guides, seals a new exhaust
valves.  The glowplug stub came out easy then.  In that vintage, having 
only 3 plugs didn't seem to matter much.

Cardboard across the radiator was necessary when operating in -20F and
below.  As I recall the car came with -13F glycol mix, which was replaced 
with a 60/40 mix.  Back then, I ran 20W50 oil in the summer, and 10W-30 in
the extreme cold.  For normal winter (when not going to north country),
i used 10W-40.

A couple of things I learned...park tail to the wind, if leaving the 
vehicle running for extended times.  Take the first 5 to 10 miles at 
40 MPH or less.  The 79 Rabbit would go as high as 82, but 55 to 60 
was the practical speed for it.  At 75 it makes a racket, and can't maintain 
speed up any significant grade.  

The best thing I ever did for cold weather operation was to have my own
supply of fuel.  At home, I had an outdoor tank, and it had filters on
the outflow.  I could also recirc the tank through the filters.
Using the filtered fuel, and mixing with #1 (kerosin) kept things
running, when most diesel cars were dead.  I believe that diesel fuel
quality is what killed diesel fuel car popularity in this area.

Even though the book said to use gasoline, I always used kerosine or 
Jet-A (JP4)  to dilute the fuel.   -20F daytime temps would have me using 30 to 50%
kerosine.  Oh, the 79 IP lasted to 379K, without rebuild.

> 
> In a message dated 1/17/2009 7:10:49 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
> cosborn at epix.net writes:
> 
> > What is the coldest temp that any of you can remember starting your diesel
> > without an add on heater?
> > 
> 
>   1980 Rabbit 1.5 about -25F I think.  It was many years ago since it 
> got that cold. Dasher did it too in 95/96.  That Rabbit started one 
> Spring after sitting al Winter or more, with a battery that had 8V to 
> 10V thus was turning over pretty slowly.  Still fired after about one 
> revolution.  Shocked Dad and I both!
>     Loren
> 
> 
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