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cold weather starting/oil viscosity 200 1983

Oil should be light enough for 0F.

I've heard that running the parking lights for a couple of minutes before starting the battery actually causes the battery to warm a few degrees, and the increased temperature does more good than the extra power use hurts, resulting in a better chance of starting. I don't know if I believe it. It would be an interesting experiment.

There are an array of block/water/oil heaters that will keep the oil thin and add heat under the hood to help the battery stay warm. However, if you are on a limited budget and you don't want to do any invasive mechanical work in the cold, a regular blanket would help keep a little of yesterdays's engine heat under the hood, if the car is garaged. If it is outdoors in the wind, this probably won't help. DON'T forget to remove it before starting the car!

You could probably use an electric blanket under there, though I question how much more good it would do.

Finally, those jumper cables may come in handy. There are tables for the percentage of battery cranking power that is available at low temperatures. At some temperature, between the thick oil, cold heads, and cold batteries, it takes two cold batteries to start one car.






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