I'm Cold!

[Z28SSMAN]

Isn't this great Minnesota weather! Too bad there's no football today.

[Fast One]

Yeah, it was - 14 this morning up here & it's still -3. But it never gets all that cold around here to me. The high for today in my hometown is -13, and they saw -30 last night.

Joel

[MR.hp]

Isn't this great Minnesota weather! Too bad there's no football today.

Sissy

[Fast One]

Now it's back to -14 again. Great weather for hockey! :banana smile:

[smooth_358]

car didn't start this morning. stupid cold

[fast toys]

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrr.

[Fast One]

-18 here this morning. No big deal. Most of my friends & I used to walk a mile to school when it was a lot colder than that. I remember only one time when they closed school just for cold wx. I was in senior high. It was -54 & windy. Windchill was around -90. Never got above -40 for nearly a week. When it's in the -40s, you can spit & it will freeze in midair. It makes a cracking sound.

Joel

[Z28SSMAN]

I remember worrying about some of the old cars starting when it got to be -15 to -20. Ya had to make sure the choke set and you had a good choke pull-off. If you flooded it, you had to floor it and maybe use starting fluid.

Now I stand inside and hit the remote start.

[Fast One]

I remember those days! Seemed like nearly every car needed a different 'magic trick' for reliable cold-starting. 'Pumping the gas' was an art. Setting a manual choke was an art. Automatic choke tuning was an art. Everybody carried jumper cables & a can of ether. I remember switching to manual chokes on some of my cars back in high-school.

When I was a kid, I remember people buying mega-cold-cranking-amp batteries in an attempt to improve cold-wx starting. But they still had trouble in -30 temps if they couldn't plug the block or tank heater in. Being an electronics guy, I knew that the problem wasn't the battery. It was excessive voltage-drop on the battery cables, which significantly reduced cranking power and spark energy. That's a major double-whammy when trying to ignite cold gas in a cold cylinder, and a higher-amp battery won't help a bit. It's a recipe for wiping all the oil off the cylinder walls if you flood it. I used to keep a small container of high oil content mixed gas handy just for those situations. Mopars with the reduction starter were notorious for the problem, as they usually didn't crank over fast enough to sling any oil. My dad had trouble with that on his 383 & 360-powered Fury game warden cars. They couldn't handle even a mild flooding in 20-30 below wx without washing the oil off the cylinder walls & losing all compression. Back in high-school, I started replacing the 4 gauge battery cables in my cars with 2/0 high-strand-count welder's cable. My cars would easily start in -45 temps without being plugged in - even after cold-soaking for a few days.

Since my first SFI car, I've never worried about cold-starts. Plus, I've been using synthetic oil since the early 90s. Thanks to today's high-energy DI systems, SFI & GDI fuel-delivery systems, and synthetic oils, winter starting problems are a distant memory for the most part. My GTP fires right up in -45 F temps even when not plugged-in. So did my Subie, and even my '94 Ford Exploder with the 4L gutless wonder. I'm sure the GN would fire right up in those temps, as well.

Joel

[Bluetcster]

I remember worrying about some of the old cars starting when it got to be -15 to -20. Ya had to make sure the choke set and you had a good choke pull-off. If you flooded it, you had to floor it and maybe use starting fluid.

Now I stand inside and hit the remote start.

You had to choke your car? Sometimes I would like to choke my truck when it does not run good.

[Z28SSMAN]

Choke your truck or choke your chicken?

[98 cobra s/c]

More cold coming tomorrow.

[Fast One]

Great wx for us unnaturally-aspirated folks. Love the big bump in torque from the ice-cold air being pulled through the GTP's blower. Crisp, dry, sub-zero air adds even more power than an intercooler.

Joel

[MR.hp]

This weather sucks.

[Z28SSMAN]

Nice little storm comin' Sunday! Yippee!