[T3] BBbbrrrrrr!

[Don Robertson]

Put an electric hotplate under the engine for an hour or two, if you 
don;t have any leaks, and it will start right up like 
summertime.  (Be sure to have the clutch in so you don't have to turn 
the transmission as well.)

At 05:27 PM 1/6/2014, you wrote:
>It was -14 F outside just before noon today, and it's probably colder
>now. This is the coldest weather we've had here in more than 20
>years. My '73 square doesn't get run much in the winters, so I put a
>charger on it a few days ago to keep the battery charged up. Did you
>know that the electrolyte in a discharged battery will freeze at a
>much higher temp than if it's charged? If I let it run down, and it
>freezes, that's really hard on the battery. Sometimes it ruins them.
>
>Well, I figured this would be a good test. The battery should be
>fully charged and the FI should work as well as ever. Still, there
>was no joy. The 15W-40 that was in the engine was just too thick at
>this temp. Even with a fully charged battery, the starter could turn
>the engine over only very slowly, not enough to have any chance of
>starting.
>
>While a few of you live in places that are even colder than here, I
>realize that most of you have no idea what this is like, when the
>snow gets crunchy, and the inside of your nose tickles as you breath
>in and stuff inside there freezes. It's really not bad as long as
>you're dressed for it, and as long as the wind isn't too strong.
>Unfortunately, there's a wind now that drives the wind chill to well
>below -14 F. It's hard to dress well enough to be out in that for
>long.
>
>The charger is still attached. I'll try again in a few days, if the
>temps here get above zero.
>
>In the meantime, we're staying indoors as much as possible.
>
>Happy New Year, everyone!   ;-)
>
>--
>*******************************
>Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
>Madison, Wisconsin, USA
>*******************************
>
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Don Robertson - (905) 566-0000
3641 Wolfedale Road, Mississauga, Ontario, L5C 1V8
Skype: marinemarketplace
Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to 
live at the expense of everybody else.
- Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

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