My first year in MD after long time in Cali, and I had some recent trouble starting in the cold, even after cycling glow plugs 3 times. Cranked about 15 secs, then about 5secs a second time, and she fired, but one cylinder was kicking in late. Glow plugs are about 3 years old, but never needed them in Cali, she always fired. So I ordered new ones, but still had to face the recent storm without them. I wanted to be pro-active a bit, and knew she would be out in the cold at least 3 days. Battery is about a year old, synthetic oil (Rotella T6) about 2 weeks old, recent valve job, clear fuel with antigel, starter about one year. The block heater gave up a while ago ( it was great my last spell in MD), and never made up my mind on alternatives (oil patches, dipstick heaters etc), and heard everywhere that replacing the block heater was risky.
Sooo, to prepare for the storm and cold, I a) took out the battery to keep warm inside, 2) drained about 2 quarts of engine oil from the oil pan at the bottom. Then after the storm, and cold, I a) put one of those portable electric range cooking elements, which is a coil on which you can cook on, underneath the oil pan, about a inch away, for about an hour, to heat up the oil in the reservoir, b) heated up the 2 quart oil which I had previously drained, and poured into the top of the crank-case, where you usually put in oil, c) replaced battery. And she started on first try.
The draining of oil is a pain and prolly not something to do every time. But putting the electric heating coil underneath the oil pan makes sense and doable every time, in lieu of a better alternative. Even with glowplugs I will still do it. Hey this works, and is not too complicated.
1984 300sd, 250k+ miles, prolly 400k, odo has been out for many years
Posted by: Alan Boucher <alsthe1@gmail.com>
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