1*F the other morning. No problem firing right up.

just razzin' all ya'all.

getting sick of negative teens for lows......

I think we found our Eskimoe baby. I did'nt see if he was from the north pole or south pole? Brave to go ice fishing in that kind of weather,coulda been killed.

I fired my diesel up for the first time in a couple months in 13*F, no block heater. Smoked a bit but after a minute down the road it was fine. These engines are the best!

About -5F in Green Bay without the block heater and the car outside at a hotel a couple of years ago. It took some cranking, but I got it started. It was cold enough that I had trouble turning on the headlight switch.

Coldest I've ever started or driven my 300SD is -14F (no block heater plugged in)....I glowed about 4 full cycles, cranked about 15 seconds, and it was running....had about 275k on it at the time....still the same battery. A nice white MB battery. 4.5 years old and it still fires right up even in the cold with 0 issues. It has an easier life now....as it sits in a moderately heated (55F or so) garage during the winter. :D


-14F is REALLY cold. You can freeze your fingers to the metal on the door if there is any moisture present. :eek: It takes about 4-5 mins of high idle for the engine to be even remotely happy at those temps.

I have seen 20 below F for sure and perhaps as cold as 30 below once. With a sound motor with not too many miles it will start without heat down to about zero F. Below that a block heater is required. Anything zero and below once I get it started I won't shut it off unless a plug in for the heater is available. I have let them run all day on many occasions....all night at a motel once.;)

My record for my '79 300sd was I believe -29 deg C with no block heater. However, it had a brand new battery so I glowed it several times and didn't let go of the starter until it sounded like I had three or four pots firing.

I was mightily impressed by that one.

I actually started it at lower temps when it had a circulating coolant heater installed. I am still unsure how the PO plumbed it into the heater circuit (taking into account the servo) but it was unreal. Started in February like it was September and I had cabin heat in no time flat.

Unless I run synthetic oil, which I am not right now until the next change, starting is iffy if the temp is in the low teens or so. It will crank but there's too much to fight to get the crank speed fast enough. It wants to start but can't. If I run synthetic I haven't had any starting problems.

We had our first cold spell two weeks ago in the low teens. I also let the fuel level stay too low at around 1/4 tank the day before. No go.

coldest I've ever started a diesel was in my Massey tractor. I lived in SD at the time, and it was the coldest day on record there... massive snowstorm (more like sandblasting powder than snow) and We got a call to help a neighbor whose car had slipped off the road into a bank... it was -40F with 80 mph winds and snowing... MISERABLE WEATHER... but the kid who WALKED to our door told us his mother and baby sister were waiting in the car for us... THE FIRST NEIGHBOR HE STOPPED AT COULD NOT GET HIS TRACTOR OR TRUCK TO START!
ours was plugged into the block heater, and the fuel tank is on top of the motor, so it was warm as well, and it did start and run. we drove past the car because it was covered in a bank of snow and had to find it on the way back... the women were nearly dead when we got there because they were running the car to stay warm, and the snow was putting the fumes into the car...
everyone was ok, because the fuel tank was above the motor and didn't freeze up!

Cold Starts 85 300D
 

Geeze...I feel lucky that the lowest temp I needed to start in was -10* F....BUT a week ago I did get Ol Blue to start at +18* with no glow plugs (malfunction - time to replace the ignition switch +/or relay, crap...it's ALWAYS in the cold when things happen:mad:)

mind you the starter wasn't happy when I did it...but it did start. LOVE these old MB's

FWIIW-

Had an 84 300D back in 99 when Dad was going through Cancer Surgery. It was about -25F in Jan (Peoria IL). If car was not plugged in, it would not start. Battery was fairly new. When turned over is was groaning. When we went to the Hospital, I parked the car and religiously Started the car every hour and ran for about 10 minutes. Also kept a High Quality Ext Cord in the trunk in case I could find an outlet in the Parking Deck (sometimes I could)

Joints hurt just thinking about it.

I feel awful. The coldest it's been this year that I've seen is about 10C. I've just started driving Liesl again since the accident. And I've been waiting for a nice cold spell to see how well it does. Last year, though, it got to freezing, though I can't recall if it ever got below. Life is good in SoCal.

1 degree,then heater quit.Now car smells like burnt carpet.

Hello, -43 degrees celcius which is close to -40 F today.
I could not get the car started last night which was odd since I plugged in the lower rad hose heater last time the car was run. I went over to find that the G.F.I recepticle had tripped off for some reason sometime during the night? In these temps. it is much better if the car gets plugged in right after being shut off rather than try to warm it from a dead cold.

With the breaker tripped I NOW am trying to warm everything up from dead cold.

So, last night I reset the breaker and plugged in the lower rad hose heater AGAIN, plus the battery blanket ,plus the oil pan heater. I tried it once about three hours after and checked the breaker. Still too cold. Breaker good.

I waited until this a.m and figured it would be nice and warm, checked the breaker...good, get into the car and the seat is hard as a rock as usual.
The battery blanket did it's job as the car turned over faster...the oil pan heater probably helped although I have 5w 40 mobil synthetic in it. I think you loose quite abit of battery capacity when it is cold. Battery blanket helped overnight....but......
It just would not start, or fire, so I figured that the fuel is gelled in the lines.

I was going to ask the question online, but decided against it in case I burned the car down. I have now performed it and did not burn the car down... so, I can share.

I used a small plumber's propane torch to heat the hard lines from the injection pump to the injectors and the car fired up.
PLEASE NOTE:I did not get close to the overbleed lines or the injectors but rather stayed close to the brackets that hold the steel curvy lines together at about the midpoint of travel between the pump and injector. I stayed away from rubber and plastic lines as well. I moved the heat back and forth and very briefly heated the metal fuel filter as well as the block that it screws to. I only used the heat for a couple of minutes and made sure to not get the heat close to the injection pump or any flammable lines (cloth lines between injectors). I could hold my fingers on the metal lines when finshed, so I did not get it too hot, just enough to ungel the fuel. I was fortunate in that the motor was washed before winter and I had no residual fuel that would ignite from direct contact with a flame. Use this info at your own risk.

Hooray....The car is now running and I think it may need to stay running all night this evening since it is needed early tomorrow.
The temperatures are expected to stay the same and obviously my additive is'nt working to keep the fuel flowing. The key was nearly impossible to turn in the ignition tumbler and at times I was worried about breaking it off......getting really fed up with this weather.