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Extreme Cold Starting

Ok forgot to mention:

951 ECU
ECT 1 year old
MAF ( have 2, they both work fine )

* the light oil & working airbox tstat is something I should do
* I have a magnetic block heater I put on block or oil pan, but it's not always an option
* Typically turn on a few accs, lights, etc .. to help warm batt, & will consider your suggestions

Thanks for the advice
 
You are likely experiencing issues with the battery being very cold. We see this at work with the UPS systems when the batteries are very cold. Much reduced battery run time.

If you have a standard lead acid battery, your electrolyte is likely gelled as well. Growing up in South Dakota, it wasn't unusual to see frozen batteries when I worked at a service station in high school. There were several instances of -20F or lower those two winters.

In my case, I had a 75 Chevy Vega (it was the 80s). I ran a battery tray heater and a circulating (in the heater line) block heater. As long as I plugged it in over night from November to March, it started easily. If it dropped below ~10F, it would start hard if I didn't plug it in. Below 0F, forget starting it at all if not plugged in.

I remember going to the grocery store or mall during super cold weather and there would be 50 cars in the parking lot idling. If you worked there, you would have to go out every couple hours and start your car and warm it up. If you didn't, it wouldn't start.
 
You could always do what I saw on the bush pilot tv show. After landing he dumps the engine oil. Before takeoff he heats the engine oil on a fire and then fills the engine back up and starts the plane.

Much better than what they did with the P40s during WWII. For them cold starting consisted of flooding the crankcase with fuel so it's diluted enough to start the plane. :wtf:
 
^A lot of planes use/used straight 30 weight oil or the like.

0W-30/0W-40 oil in a modern synthetic in a car will flows much more easily at sub freezing temps..

They not sell/have in the junkyard/habitat for humanity?:
-Cheap heated/insulated battery blankets where you're at? You literally just need a heating pad around it that will hold up/pop a fuse during a malfunction around the battery and some rock-wool commercial fire-batt around it in an insulating blanket and something to keep the rock wool from absorbing oil/liquid?
-Or the Volvo frost plug replacement block heater?
-Or a 2000W Harbor fright inverter and remote controlled relay to turn on the heater (I mounted mine along the passenger side rear quarter of the wagon for tools/block heat etc).
-Maybe a temporary extra defroster rocker switch for a 240 dashboard and/or remote fob to control all this to minimize having to wait around?

Considerable engine wear & fuel can be saved block heating the car (even after it starts) in extreme cold, even if you're using your Denso 100A alt to inefficiently power the heat source / car battery instead of grid power...

Keep in mind if you've got a little piece of plastic to slide over the intake side/half of the radiator(easy on a 240, just slide it in from the hood slam panel top down really), if it blocks the little hole on the front the intake air box, that hole allows a small amount of air to blow on the wax pellet airbox T-stat while driving, it won't properly regulate the airbox temp to feed the engine ~100% hot air off the exhaust in freezing temps...don't defeat what the guys in white lab coats painstakingly figured out at Volvo. Just a shame the service life of the t-stat is ~ 2-6 years, but it's only like $12 or whatever. Cheaper preventatively than a MAF/Engine/Wasted Fuel &/or fouled Cat/02 sensors.

Also, assume you're running an 87?C or 92?C coolant t-stat? In an N/A car without a water cooled turbo with all that water so close to the exhaust, it's difficult to even get the oil/water up to temp quickly enough to get all the fuel/vapors to come off it in a 240. I ran the water/oil 940 heat exchanger on my N/A car and 92?C T-stat for winter use (probably overkill), bypassed the temp-faker for the temp gauge (of course). Thick "volvo" (or similar phosphate-free decent quality) coolant and a dab of redline water wetter with distilled water. Never changed coolant in a decade or had any corrosion issues with the radiator/hoses. Turbo k-jet cars I'd just run the factory 82?C T-stat year round with water-cooled turbo...warmup was fast and K-jet isn't really affected slightly cooler coolant/intake port walls.

Hopefully the injectors are pretty clean?
 
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On the good side. I've always loved how much better the engnie runs in the cold of the winter once warmed up. Of course NJ winter is cold but sure isn't like what others deal with.
 
ECT should be correct type, I was reading threads about it over a year ago when I was chasing down some other faults, & decided firing the parts cannon on an ECT wasn't a big financial risk.

* I believe it was the correct ECT for 1992 LH 2.4 ( same cross reference or part that IPD listed )

** Of course with our recent heat wave (above -10f) there are no such issues
 
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