RE: TWL: Re: Lehman cold start

I do not claim to be an expert, but my wife and I have driven our small VW
diesels over 300K miles. Our old 52 hp. Jetta would occasionally need to be
cranked hard during our New England winters and we used more than our share
of batteries. It did have a block heater and it did better when it was
plugged in. After a lot of reading on the VW TDI web site I decided to use
Mobil 1 when we bought our Passat Diesel. The Mobil 1 seems to have
eliminated the need to do any hard cranking, although that may be due to the
TDI technology being better. It may be interesting to note that many VW
Diesel owners are using Delvac and swearing by it. They indicate the need
to do significantly fewer oil changes using the Delvac. I may be less of a
risk taker so I change the Mobil 1 at 5K.

I have not taken the next step to use Mobil 1 or Delvac in my Lehman 135,
but I am considering it. I do use multi-viscosity in the Lehman and Onan
Generator due to our New England temperature extremes. I still have some
doubts about the possibility of viscosity breakdown and would probably use a
single weight in southern climes.

Peter North
Salty Dog KK42 # 52

 -----Original Message-----
From: Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2001 8:34 AM
To: trawler-world-list
Subject: Re: TWL: Re: Lehman cold start

I think Wayne has summed it up quite accurately. I can remember when I was
in the Air Force (many years ago) that many of the diesel generators had
crankcase heaters and engine block heaters to keep the engine block and oil
warm for quick starts. I am not sure, but I think battery capacity also
decreases as the temperature drops below freezing.

I have been very interested in Captn Wil's epistles on synthetic oil and
just recently had to drive from Florida to freezing New York in our Ford
Expedition. While in New York I noticed that the Expedition was very slow
cranking and did a lot of clanking after starting. To indulge my curiosity
about synthetic oil, I took advantage of an advertised special for a $29 oil
and filter change using Mobil 1. After the change, I was amazed at the
engine's ease of starting and running at temperatures below 30 degrees. I am
now seriously thinking of trying the Mobil Delvac 1 synthetic oil in my
American Diesel and genset. According to the Mobil engineer I spoke with, it
creates less friction between the moving parts and has better cleaning or
detergent qualities than regular oil.

Consider installing a crankcase or engine block heater to keep the engine
block and oil warm, or try using a multi viscosity oil or using a synthetic
to help with the cold starting.

Al
M/V Pleasant Moment
Pacific Trawler 37
Palm Coast, FL
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snip >>>Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2001 13:24:52 EST
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