At -30 air temp I was even surprized it would even turn over with 15W40 in it. Hard on starter and all other components. Starters are very $$$. Check with the locals as to what they use (they are experienced) for oil.

 

If you don't want to use Mobil 1, how about a 5W30 weight. You would want to get it out of there once spring comes. I have lived in the type of climate you are now enjoying, if every thing is working it will start just being plugged in. Good luck Don

 

I live in a similar climate to you Baradium. I'm about 1200 miles to the east of you, two provinces over, and my truck is quite the beast to start when its -40. Sometimes when I'm at work, I have to go start it during the day and let it run for 15 minutes or else it just wont start at the end of the day. I've noticed that at -30C it'l start pretty good, but around -40C its nearly impossible to get it started unless its plugged in.

My advice to you is to make sure that you got a fresh set of gp's in yur rig and 0W30 oil and that should improve things a hell of alot more. Higher amperage batteries like the ones you have should do it, but I have two 850CCA's in mine and it does OK, but not really bad or really good. I find that if I don't floor it when I try to start my truck and its -30 or more, it won't even turn over at all. And you can't flood a fuel injected vehicle because its electronically controlled...only carburated engines.

 

I use Rotella 0 W 40 Synthetic. I do not know about oil leaks? Do you know someone that had leaks when using synthetic in our old rigs? When you go back to 15 w 40 in the summer, does it go back to normal?
I know a lot of people use 0 W 30 semi syntetic up here no problem. Do you mean oil leak or oil consumption? I did not notice any leaks, but I did not run a lot of miles.

 

Well, I've heard many times that they make what leaks you have worse, although they might not be as bad about it now. I've been told it'll essentially clean the deposits surrounding the small leaks, making them larger. This would cause the leaks to be worse when you switched back.

The people who I know who had those problems did it a while ago (a number of years), but they did have this problem. My truck has a number of very slow leaks (I don't have to worry about the oil level too much) and I don't want to make them worse.

I'll be quick to reconsider if anyone has done so and not experienced an increase. I realize many advancements have been made.

I'm a big fan of Rotella as well and the only Rotella T I've found up here has been the 15-40... not to say there might not be anything else, just havn't seen it. I have seen 10-30 when I was in GA, but none up here.


Many of the people I talk to up here with diesels have newer models, the only one I know with an older one (SD-33T) hasn't had it too long and I'm still filling him in on that one. I'm keeping an eye out for IDI diesels owned by people who seem to have an idea of what's going on.

I can tell you that GM says that at -40 below with duramax trucks you either have to disable fast idle or unplug the transmission heater... at high idle the transmission fluid is thin enough in the pan it's easy to pump, but the fluid in the lines and cooler isn't so it has issues (this from someone I talked to the other day,said he got a service bulletin for his truck about it).

I had to use the heater again this morning. I've heard it might get to 50 below before tomorrow... for tonight I am trying a bit more of an extreme approach. I bought a cheap sleeping bag and put it over the hood with a tarp on top of that strapped down (will keep snow off the bag and keep it on place).

I'm going to start the truck at 4 hours since shutdown (3am my Lima time) to let it warm back up and then at intervals after that point (expanding the interval if the truck is very easy to start to find out how long I can go between starts with the bag). The bag did make a very noticable difference to heet at the hood level, so I'm hoping it'll really help keep some heat in the engine compartment. If I'm lucky it'll help get to the point of overnight between starts.

Additionally, my wait to start light interval really does seem to have decreased since last week... with the colder temps I'm going to venture that I did lose a glow plug, so the ultra low temps might just be a coincidence.


Regarding the "you're going to work at -40?" questions... piston engine ops get canceled past -40, but turbine ops continue to -50 (sometimes past if there's a very very good reason, there is no published number for turbine engines). I'm a co-pilot on Beech 1900 twin turboprops.

 

You might have to wait till spring when it warms up. I know the fellow in the oil boom towns of northern Alberta keep their Diesel running around the clock when the temperature drops that low as the know they can't restart if they let their pick-ups freeze up overnight.

Starting an IDI at -40F is an adventure for sure and you could brake a few things along the way.

Best of luck,


Seb....

 

Baradium, I see you keep posting... 40 below really isn't that cold... Well, this morning in middle Georgia the low was only 35 ABOVE. Might I suggest MOVING BACK!!!!!!

 

At least his internet connection hasn't frozen over. Global warming HA.