How are they running? (1 Viewer)

[Mulva]

Being up north of 60 in Canada, I was curious on how peoples Cruisers were running in these frigid temperatures.
Up in Whitehorse, it has been -45 for the past few days.
I have found that the brakes are very stiff and letting the cruiser sit and idle (@1200 rpm) with the throttle pulled does very little to put a load on the engine.

Five minutes of driving and the coolant temperature does raise and there is heat coming out of the vents. I keep the vehicle plugged in all night and starts up without any issues (a couple cycles of warming the glow plugs) apart from the square tires. I have on oil pan heater, inline coolant heater, and a battery blanket on each battery. Switched out the Amsoil15w40 synthetic oil to mobile 10w30 synthetic. This has resulted in a bit of a lower oil pressure.

How have other people been doing with their diesels? Any suggestions to make the operations less painful on the cruiser at these temperatures?

 

[M John Galt]

Running very well

In addition to those suggestions, Im using:
A 50W battery blanket over the injectors
A 65W silicon pad heater around the fuel filter
Lower rad hose heater
Battery blankets on both Nautilus marine batteries [Optimas don't like extreme cold, and died after the first winter]
5W-50 synthetic motor oil
synthetics in the diffs, tranny and xfer case

half the rad blocked off with high tech cardboard

also idling for warm up at 1200 with the xfer case in N and the tranny in 1st gear to warm up the gear oil and give a bit more load.

make sure the fuel sump/water separator is drained before extreme cold operations.

 

[gbcruiser]

Gees, down here on Vancouver Island we're still running summer diesel. What's an engine heater?

 

[Funksolid]

Yeah switching to a 0w40 Synth was the best thing I have ever done to my cruiser. I'm surprised you dont blow breakers in your houses with all those warming electronics on!

My 2H with just an inline heater on the rad hose starts and runs like a beauty even on the coldest morning only -35. I do have the blind that rolls down the tranny cooler, and then I run card board as well (between the tranny and rad) and it blows flames.

You should have seen me trying to start the generators @ work... Some stupid ass tin bashes tuned them all off They were frozen solid. Would not even turn over. I tried boosting them with my truck and started melting the booster cables... I think it might be because I have a 24V...

Stay Warm!

 

[M John Galt]

I'm surprised you dont blow breakers in your houses with all those warming electronics on!
Stay Warm!

Total is 5 amps, [a coffee maker uses more] or about 50¢ an hour. Breakers are 15 amp. Cheap insurance to reduce engine deposits from cold start-up.

 

[presentationmall]

yes its very tough to run the cruisers.

 

[polarweasel]

yes its very tough to run the cruisers.

Time for a banning, mods.

 

[dingdong]

My FJ62 starts all the time regardless of how cold it is. Started it yesterday at -35C without the block heater plugged in. No issues, warms up quick.

The 1HZ on the other hand, does not like the cold as much. It starts, but belches and sputters for a few minutes. 30min with the webasto on prior to startup make a big difference.

The 3B I have is a miracle engine. Never any grief of any kind.

These trucks sure do run nice in the winter. They track awesome, and seem to be a lot quieter.

 

[skoki]

Before my fan clutch went I didn't have any trouble. I swapped all of my fluids for synthetic ( I forgot to swap out my clutch fluid and boy can you tell the difference!). Synthetic engine, tranny, transfer, front/rear diffs, p/s and even synthetic grease in my hubs. I've run it in -40 weather quite a bit and never had any issues. I don't bother with a block heater because the recirculating heater does the job. When your running down the highway the wind chill can be -60! Anything we can do to lighten the load on the mechanicals is well worth it.

 

[Wherlwind]

I've never had a problem with my latest HJ60 until this week when I forgot to plug it in at -30C and it did not want to start. My old one(both 87s) used to fire up unplugged at -45 no problem . I've run 15-40 in both all year and this is the first time I've had any trouble starting them. My HJ61 does not seem to like the cold at all. At -15 something( in the linkage or throttle cable, I think) sticks every so often and it revs like crazy when it first fires up. I turn it off right away and try to restart it. If I do that a few times then it kills the batteries even though they are brand new. It doesn't seem to me that the 12HTs are as good in the cold. Also wonder why it doen't have a water separator. Do any of the 12HTs?