Curt Raymond wrote:
So tonight the temp is predicted to hit a low of -9F.
I KNOW my 190D will start at that temp, or rather I expect it will, it starts
perfectly well at 11F which is the coldest I've ever had opportunity to try it
at.
Be that as it may last weekend at the hardware store I noticed a $6 Christmas
light timer. I've always wanted to have the block heater on my car come on
automagically so I grabbed it. Tonight I've wired it up, at 4:30am tomorrow it
should click on so at 7am when I'm ready to leave my car should start as if it
were a warm June day.
Thats the idea anyway. 2.5 hours is probably way more time than is actually
needed for the engine to be reasonably warm but with my luck the cold will make
the foolish thing keep slow time and I'll actually only get 5 minutes of heat
before its time to go...
I'm not really worried about the car being able to start you know. I'm not even
interested in how keeping the engine warm will reduce startup wear (although it
probably will). No indeed I'm more interested in the fact that pre-warming the
engine should significantly cut down on the amount of driving I have to endure
before the heat comes on.
My wife is a bit miffed that we've spent $180,000 on a house so I have
somewhere to plug in my car.
The 601.921 engine that's running well and whose fuel is water free and
fully winterized and with Mobil 1 in the sump should reliably start
WITHOUT the block heater down to 10 below zero F if you follow the
Mercedes instructions to the letter. My 601.912 (not equipped with a
block heater) has started at -15, but that was really close and I wasn't
sure it was going to make it. With the block heater on for a bit more
than an hour, I've had NO trouble with a car cold soaked down to -24.
Marshall
--
Marshall Booth Ph.D.
Ass't Prof. (ret.)
Univ of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
