I'm going to be living in Ithaca, NY until december and am thinking about my '83 300d turbo diesel freezing over. It has a power cord under the hood to plug in over night, but I won't be parking near my house. Is there another good solution to keeping it warm?

Thanks,
Nick

you may be able to get away with it if you are only staying until december especially if you mean the beginning of december. i can usually start up with out a block heater down to about 12 deg F. anything below that needs a block heater.

basically you need a good battery and fully functioning glow plugs.

ps: watch the posts for the next diesel new england gtg on august 1st, in case you care to attend.


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1984 300D Turbo - 231k....totalled 11/30/07 RIP

My car can start down to 0F without plugging it in. With a few hours of block heater time, it will start easily even in the -30s. You need strong compression and a glow plug system in perfect order. My advice would be to run synthetic oil, adjust the valves to ensure that the compression is as high as it can get, do two 30 sec glow plug cycles before attempting to start, keep the tank full of winter grade diesel, and cross your fingers...

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Denis

1979 300TD 189,000 Miles, now running WVO with a home-made 2 tank conversion
1974 230 Gasser 189,000 Miles, For Sale
1961 VW Microbus 162,000 Miles
1961 Ford Fairlane 500, 53,900 original miles
1951 Oliver Super 55 Tractor
2002 Chocolate Lab