1/9/24 storm

[Mark]

A 100W fluorescent light bulb worked good on cars, probably wouldn't work on an aircraft engine.In the old days!

[raymond]

I''m down South for the winter, but it was -11F yesterday morning in Clarksville.
Good thing we have global warming or it might have got down to -12F

[raymond]

P.S. Whenever it gets like this, Al Gore never shows up (in his private jet) to take a shift on the tractor to blade the snow that he says we don't get anymore.

[rickf]

Thanks for the tips guys, I pretty muck know all of those tricks being from living in the cold country my entire life. But in this case I have a couple things against me. One is the vehicle is 175 feet from electric so you are looking at two looong extension cords. Not good for current capacity. And the main problem is there is no bodywork on the front of the vehicle but the hood. so the engine is out in the open. I will check it again this morning and see if it is still leaking out the weak stuff and if the pure anti freeze has gone down. If it has there is hope. Worst part is that I now have a sore throat, I hope I am not coming down with something.

[rickf]

I''m down South for the winter, but it was -11F yesterday morning in Clarksville.
Good thing we have global warming or it might have got down to -12F

You are south for the winter?!!
No more plowing the drive and lounging in the heated pool pics?

[glcaines]

Nothing wrong with using a hair dryer to keep an aircraft engine warm, although some sources discourage the practice due to liability issues. You don't need to get the engine hot, just raise the temperature a few degrees. This is very common practice, especially in the northern latitudes and only takes a small hair dryer on low heat. I've also used a hairdryer to help start engines in very cold weather. Just direct the hot air into the air intake on the engine and it will help the engine start, especially for diesel engines. It was also very common practice to inject gasoline into aircraft engine crankcases prior to shutdown in very cold weather. The lower viscosity oil made the engine easier to turn over later in cold temperatures and as the engine warmed up, the gasoline evaporated out of the crankcase prior to takeoff. One trick I learned in the Army while stationed in Germany was to turn the headlights on for up to 10 minutes prior to trying to start engines in extremely cold temperatures. The slight battery drain to light the headlights warmed up the batteries somewhat, speeding up the battery chemistry, and the batteries provided more starting power. My unit always did this with our deuces, tracks and M60s when the temperature was below 0 F. This was before ether injection in our deuces and they relied mostly on manifold flame heaters.