Date:         Fri, 23 Oct 1998 06:53:15 -0500
Reply-To:     Martin's <nitram@TBCNET.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Martin's <nitram@TBCNET.COM>
Subject:      cold wx starts
Comments: To: vanagon <Vanagon@VANAGON.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

> After talking to alot of different motor rebuilders and then hearing alot
of
> horror stories I would say your best bet for cold weather starting is
multi-
> weight oil and maybe some type of block heater (if you want that oil nice
and
> warn before you crank up the motor).
> Thats my 2 cents.
> Ken Wilford
> Van-Again
> John 3:16


The other thing that you could do is put the starter on a seperate switch
from the ignition so that you can turn the engine over several time to get
the oil circulted prior to the engine actually starting.  Studies with
aircraft engines durning WW2 show that most bearing wear is done at start
and turning it over until oil pressure develops is a great help.  (It takes
about 18 pulls on my 180 hp airplane engine)  I start my wife's bug the
same way, except on that it has a carb and won't start until the gas is
pressed.  t takes about 10 ec. of starter time.

For what its worth,
Larry