I always loath winter for this very reason. The high is gonna be 24* here on Wednesday. I cringe at the thought of starting my brand new engine when the oil is thick and gloppy at the bottom of the pan. Waddaya gonna do.

Am I really paranoid? Or do you guys (gals?) hate starting the car when it's that damn cold outside?

 

I hear ya. what you could do is invest in a block heater and or oil heater. The oil heater is a dipstick that plugs into the wall socket, it works well $18 from checker.
What I always do because I dont use any heaters is not set the choke and just crank the engine over not starting untile the oil pressure is upto 20 PSI then set the choke and start. It gotta be better for the engine than instant 1500rpm.
SSC

 

Go with synthetic oil and it won't be as "gloppy". To answer your question, I don't feel guilty about starting it, it's when the car has been sitting and I don't have time to let it warm up that I feel guilty.

 

While synthetic goes a long ways in helping protect your engine in cold start, and EFI helps ... I hear you on the "guilt aspect". I felt really bad having to leave my car "outside" (when I didn't have a heated garage) in cold weather and then starting in the morning, even with good "warm up" procedures. That is why I don't drive my car anymore until the spring.

 

Who cares, ya got no choice, start er up. If you're that paranoid, boil some water, I mean hot, put in pan, and put under neath oil sump. How bout rub some icyhot on it. Get a steaming machine.

 

but,, i dont even think about busting off my 400 if the temp has not been in the 50s or more for a portion of the day. Its not my daily driver and I have quite a bit in it, so it just gets to sit. The nittos don't hookup when its much colder than 60 anyway.


The high was 71 today so I got to put about 45mins on it. That might have to hold me for a while.

If i were going to do any preheating, it would be for coolant first. JC whitney has a heater that goes in a top radiator hose. That will keep the motor in the 80 to 100 degree range. Then, if its truely cold, get a oil preheater that can stick to the oilpan. Put it on a timer that will kick on several times during the night.


Oh yeah, and use 0-w30 M1, it is badas*

 

you should feel guilty if ur not running a synthetic, very guilty.

 

when i got the van the old 4.3 had 107K on it. I thought what the hell it's been beaten on ever since it was new. Now that I got this new motor, it's toture every time. I can hear the starter bog and the oil pressure gauge goes to 70psi.

I don't worry about synthetic. I mean, my satisfaction with this engine won't outlast it. It may go to 500K miles with synthetic, but I'll prolly replace it with a bigger better beast before that. Engines have done fine on Dino-Oil for more than 100 years. And at $4 somethin a quart I think I can deal with conventional.

 

Another very simple "block heater" trick is to set a light bulb (lit of course) under the motor for a few hours before you drive it. For a daily driver, you could even get one of those $5 timers that you just plug something into, park the car over the light, and set the timer to come on a couple of hours before you need to leave n the morning.

Simple is good sometimes.