That's friggin' crazy! You live there on purpose or were you banished? But I do realize it probably keeps the riff raff scum to a bare minimum...

And to add another stupid question, what is "wet stacking"?

 

When a diesel runs cold it does not completely burn the diesel fuel, the raw diesel fuel glazes the cylinder walls along with putting a real nice shinny wet on glass looking coating on the exhaust manifold , turbo & piping on the inside. If bad enough you will see raw fuel dripping out of the joints on the manifold. NOT good!!!

Sunday I started my 89, it's been sitting for months. It was 25 degrees out, this is the first time I have ever heard the glow plug relays kick in, by one revolution it was running. I was impressed!!!! The automatic tranny kickdown linkage would not move so I could not give the pedal much RPM because of the kickdown holding it, after it ran for about 15 minutes it did free up.

 

You mean heater grid relays right?

 

^ ^ ^ Grid heaters is correct!!! Sorry.

 

It was -40 last night!!! And I run it at a 1000rpm.

I have to shut the truck off while it is parked at work, but plug it in. I have the block heater and an oil pan heater and the grids still came on, also when I moved my shifter to make sure I was in neutral my shifter boot cracked and broke and a piece went flying off and bounced off the passenger side door glass! While driving home the WTS light was coming on because the air was so cold going into the motor.

 

Went out to check the truck and for some reason the idle dropped to about 850....and looks like there was some of that wet stacking that sokoji mentioned. My guess is that the throttle cables loosened up once they actually warmed up and the idle dropped a little. Now I'm not sure if I should just keep running the truck or plug it in and do the bone cold start? Which is worse for the truck and engine?

 

keep it in your new climate controlled man cave.....

 

That is a tough decision. Does the oil pan heater actually keep the oil above freezing temp? With both the oil pan heater and block coolant heater I would think it would be OK. Is the fuel good at that temp? Do you have a 2nd vehicle to jump the battery before you try and start it? I would think it would be worth a try. Maybe throw old blankets, tarps, hay bales or whatever you have around to try and insulate the engine compartment. The running the engine all night could run into a catastrophe it it looses oil psi, leaks oil, coolant loss or even if the fuel gelled and the keyed stayed on all night to kill the battery plus the engine wear that takes place during normal running and worse if the cylinders are cold and washing down thinning the oil. I think I would try a cold start at least once.

 

Wet stacking is a major concern if you have a good oil 5/40 or 0/40 and your block heater works I would sooner rely on block heater than run all night. Or I would try to bump idle to 12-1300 but I wouldn’t leave run all night if it were mine

 

When it gets -30F here, which it does every winter. If I can not drive my truck that day, that is the first choice, but there are days I have to.
I just plug in the block heater for 2-3 hours of hours, cycle the grid heaters once or twice and fire the old truck up. I would never leave it running all night unsupervised.

I can always tell if it is really cold out as the seat foam starts to feel like I am sitting on a hard wooden bench seat.
I have blown power steering hoses with thick fluid in those temps before. Synthetic power steering fluid help.

I also run the full synthetic 5/40 Rotella or Valvoline blue for my winter oil change.

 

Hi Oliver, Can I infer from what you are saying that your antifreeze without water in it is a bad indicator of the current temperature because it is not frozen? ...Mark

 

dont forget about the square tires for the first 10-20 km

 

Poncho, my '91.0 that has the pure antifreeze in it, spent most of last winter in my pole barn as I didn't have enough work to do on it last winter to make it worth being in the heated shop. So it survived all the lowest temps of last year.
It is safely out in the cold pole barn again this winter as it only has a few items that need attention to be ready for another summer on the road.

 

Thanks for the advice everyone....I was thinking about it last night while working and decided that idling for 8-10 hours would do more harm then plugging it in and then cold firing it and idling it for an hour or so before I head to work. BTW it dropped to -42*C last night with a wind chill of probably -50*C!!!!

 

I think I've found a workable solution...Once you get it running start driving south...When you get to the spot where someone says, "Snow?...I never heard of it," stop there, call the family and tell them where their new home is......Ben