i have 20w50 oil in mine and i decided 45 was too cold....

I've run 20-50 below zero in years past. Even in a beater chevy or two.

Back in the mid 90's we had near 40 below. My 79 300 started, when much newer cars wouldn't. Is that what you were wondering?

20* below 0. Any colder than that and I would be out.

well, i admit, any ol transortation car and i'll try and start it anywhere.

but im talking about my brand new 416 stroker thats sits for week at a time. filled with thick 20w50 oil.

surely you wouldnt start a car with 20w50 in it at cold temp as youd have glue for oil...

You used to be able to get an electric 'dipstick' heater that would go down the dipstick tube and preheat the oil. Don't know if you can still get them but maybe do a search?

When I lived here 13 years ago it got down to -40 f and I just wanted to see if my 68 dart would start and it fired right up after I brought the battery in to warm up for an hour. Yes it always had 20-50 in it. My 68 cuda started up the other day at -20 f but I run 10-30 in it and my 00 durango, my 91 dak started and it has 20-50 because it burns so much.

I have a dipstick heater for the oil a block heater for the coolant & a trickle charger for the battery all wired to a plug in. With a timer its ready to go when I jump in it. it doesn't get that cold here but I like to pamper the baby(me not the car).

I'll run it at any temp but always have in the correct grade of oil for the temp.

I usually run straight SAE30 in the GTX, but I got distracted last time I changed the oil, grabbed the wrong bottles and currently it has 4 quarts of of 15w40 Castrol, and three quarts of 20w50 Valvoline.

I guess that gives me something like 17 and 1/2 W 45??

Oops

Oh well it'll get changed in the spring anyway.



If the multigrade oil is working properly, then it should act the same as straight SAE 20 at cold temps. To me that doesn't sound too bad.

What did people do before multigrade oil was popularized? They ran straight weight and started them up when needed, right?

But if this is going to be an ongoing thing, you'd probably be better served by a 10W multigrade, I would think?

My car has 20w50 in it, started it in freezing temps a couple weeks ago to move it. Crank the key til you get oil pressure then fire it up

I drove 60 miles to a neigboring city last week at 5:30AM and it was 35 below zero. The Dakota wouldn't shift into OD at that temperature. Usually have the block heater plugged in at anything much below 0. It has been well below 0 most of the last 3 weeks and the vehicles go every day. The wife's van doesn't have a block heater and it starts and she goes to work every day.
don't even think about starting one with 20/50 oil in it, I don't even like to think of that at 35 degrees. That stuff gets real thick in hurry. 10-30 is bad enough.

I run 15-40 year round and have a habit of driving away with only a very short warmup.
One day was so cold the wind chill thru the rad actually turned 50/50 antifreze to slush and I had to stop and wait for it to melt out to keep the engine from overheating. That's cold!

well you know, just because you can start it up and drive it, doesnt mean that its a good thing. I think youd get a lot more wear and tear on a motor started at really cold temps.

4-5 minutes while I clear ice and snow off the windshield and then city speeds for another 5-10.
I know that most wear occurs on cold start, but I was more pointing to that being the coldest I've seen when the moving air actually drops the temp below a tested -35 antifreeze.
I think the brass monkeys were all staying inside that morning.

wind chill only affects warm blooded people/animals. It can drop the temp of an object faster than it would drop if there was no wind but it doesn't drop it below the ambient temp.

I lived in Anchorage for several years. It doesn't really get very cold there very often. I used 5-20 in the winter and started without preheat at -10F and din;t worry about it. If it is an expensive engine I'd be running 5-30 synthetic. Why 20-50 anyway? If you worry about it, get a block heater or tank heater.

Back in the 80s the day the Bengals played in the "freezer bowl" I think it was 20 below or something like that.I had a rusty 73 challenger with a hot 340 that I built. It was the only car that would start in my nieghborhood. It even sat outside all nite. I ran errands for all my neighbors that day because there cars woundn't start. After that day they never complained about the car being loud again.