Snow - winter temps and starting

David s Von Gieserbrechta · Dec 12, 2010

Didn't plug my bx2350 in last night for more of an experiment than anything else. I went out to start it this morning and gave it around 45 seconds of glow time. It turned over slow but it fired up, stalled, a little more fuel and it fired up again and kept running. It ran rough but it kept running.

Now I have 0-40 oil in it and a block heater plus a battery blanket but like I said It was more of an experiment to see what it would or would not do in regards to winter starting hence no plugging in.. I must say that, that little diesel passed the test with flying colors and I couldn't be more pleased.

The only problem that I encountered was that the engine would not warm up enough to get the temp gage to move. I had it running for better than an hour and the engine was still Luke warm, even under load the gage barely moved off of cold.

Now having an engine run cool is good but in these conditions I would like it to get up to running temperature.
As I didn't think that we were in any danger plagues of locusts untill well after Xmas I removed the bug screen and replaced it with a piece of 1/4" wood paneling 13.5"x14.75" that has an adjustable damper vent installed. Problem solved.

I should perhaps mention that it was -35f here in sunny Manitoba last night and early this morning.

KennyV · Dec 12, 2010

David s Von Gieserbrechta said:
removed the bug screen and replaced it with a piece of 1/4" wood paneling 13.5"x14.75" that has an adjustable damper vent installed. Problem solved.

I've done similar with my L4200... but I can not use anything rigid, loader mounts are in the way, so I us a flexible piece of cardboard, Never have needed to allow any vents in it... Diesel engines breathe a lot of cold air into the intake, so in the winter there is no lack of cooling.
You can keep the negative numbers up north, don't need that kind of cold here in Kansas... KennyV

Toolguy · Dec 12, 2010

Wow. -35F! I would say it passed the test with flying colors. Good luck and stay warm.

David s Von Gieserbrechta · Dec 13, 2010

KennyV said:
I've done similar with my L4200... but I can not use anything rigid, loader mounts are in the way, so I us a flexible piece of cardboard, Never have needed to allow any vents in it... Diesel engines breathe a lot of cold air into the intake, so in the winter there is no lack of cooling.
You can keep the negative numbers up north, don't need that kind of cold here in Kansas... KennyV

Aw come on Kenny, We Manitobans are known for our generosity, besides we have more coolness than we can possibly store for those hot summer days. So tell yuh what, how abouts I send down a couple weeks of chillers, yuh know just cuz we up here like to share.

It's no bother Really.

David s Von Gieserbrechta · Dec 13, 2010

Toolguy said:
Wow. -35F! I would say it passed the test with flying colors. Good luck and stay warm.

That it did Toolguy that it did.:thumbsup: The thing that I don't understand is why people living in parts of the world where it never reaches the very low temps even bother with plugging in vehicles.

I can't say that I know of many people here in Manitoba that bother to plug in untill the temps drop below -15f. Sure it's easier on the engine and makes starting that much easier but still.