Extreme Cold Weather Starting Thread 2015!!

[itskyle]

Rules, applies to non-garage kept bugs, or bugs that had to be out in the cold for some unknown reason.
Data
ambient outside temperature with and without wind chill
date
time
stock engine, tranny, or not-with details
whether or not an engine heater/heat lamp was used.

I'll start.
66 Vw beetle 67 tranny 71 1600dp engine converted to 12 volt system badly
4 degrees fahrenheit 7:45 this morning.
20 below with wind chill.
Started in under three seconds. Idling normally after about a minute and change. It seemed like 30 seconds because of the cold.

Can anybody beat that? Post yours!
_________________
--
69 or 72 Autostick Bug current
66 Bug (We both miss it)
74 SuperBeetle Auto Stick (I miss that car)
73 SquareBack, Straight Stick (Wife misses this one.)

[hitest]

Not to be a buzz kill- but there's no way to tabulate battery health, and the way of which the car was previously driven. If shut off at 10pm the previous night, 30 seconds the next day would make me think my car is broken.
_________________

[KTPhil]

Sorry, I'm no help. It will be 80 today, and it is a toasty 55 in my garage. The car is fuel injected, too. Starts in about two seconds warm or cold. Coldest start was in the teens years ago, took about four seconds. Good 12V battery and so-so compression.

In the past, I've started in the low 20s and even high teens with a carb'ed 6V Bug. It took a crank or two but always started. I used a larger Group size battery, kept the wiring in good shape, and the timing/carb/choke adjusted spot on. I used to use 30 oil but shifting to 20W50 made it crank faster when cold.

Never tried to start below zero, though.

[ZENVWDRIVER]

When I was in high school, in the 60s, my dad bought me a left-over '65 bug in late 1965 and I drove it the 32 miles each way, to school. It drove great in 12 + inches of snow and it started on every cold New Jersey morning...like all early VWs it had minimal heat and awful windshield defroster but always started.
When I graduated in 1966, it was time for me to buy my own car. I picked up a 1948 Plymouth convertible for $75 and drove it for 2 years...was not as good in the snow, had great heat and defroster, but had trouble starting when it was below 10 degrees and I usually had to call AAA for a jump start the positive ground, six volt battery.

I have old VWs these days, but rely on an outstanding Civic Si in the winter. It's the best of all...for every reason.

_________________
5/50, pastel green 11G - SOLD
8/50, gray 11A Beetle
6/52, pastel green 11C - SOLD
11/4/52, black Zwitter - SOLD to my little bro.
1954 Porsche, pre A, with VW 36 horse- SOLD
1/54, black 11C Beetle - TRADED
2/55 Iceland green Beetle, on a 1965 pan
3/55 113 Beetle, stratos silver
1955 Messerschmitt KR175 - SOLD, sadly
1960 single cab
1962 SO33, with SO 42 interior
9/63 Pacific blue, Ghia
'87 Toyota MR2
'02 WestFORDia E-150, GAVE TO OUR SON

All super-heroes, wear a MASK

[gt1953]

68 bug 1776cc dual Kadron's no chokes. 25 degrees. It is a pain to start without chokes. The car does have a starter button without ignition. So i get the oil flowing 10-30 rotella. Then put the iginition to it. Have to feather the throttle for a minute or so.
The other cars in @ 50 degrees in the garage. Start right up.
_________________
Volkswagen: We tune what we drive.
Numbers Matching VW's are getting harder to find. Source out the most Stock vehicle and keep that way. You will be glad you did.

72 type 1
72 Squareback
({59 Euro bug, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 73 type ones 68 & 69 type two, 68 Ghia all sold})

[Helfen]

1965 111 36hp 1200 matching numbers.
22 degrees. Crank engine with the manual choke OFF and ignition OFF to oil prime the engine for 15 seconds...and to fill the fuel pump and for the pump to fill the float bowl in the carburetor. Turn the ignition sw on, crank again verify fuel is there when the engine starts so sputter. Start the car in the usual Porsche 356 way ( they didn't have chokes) by before cranking to depress the throttle fully three or four times and use the throttle plate as the choke and turn ignition on and crank. Engine fires in a second, and with the throttle modulate the rpm gently to 800 rpm. When the engine will idle on it's own you can go into the house and wait for the engine oil temp to reach 115 degrees ( about ten minutes for my car ) after which you can safely apply load to the engine and drive away.

[iowegian]

[chink13]

65 sunroof with a 62 trans and a 73 stock 1600 with kadrons and kadron exhaust.
it was 21F when I got in her
stayed running on the 3rd try

also bug understand wind chill when it come at you from the side I got blown all over the road this morning but I made it without running off the road!!

[Abscate]

[shortride]

1966 VW Sedan '66 transmission 1600 engine converted to 12 volt system.
17 degrees Fahrenheit 6:00 a.m.
12 degrees above wind chill.
Started in under 10 seconds.
_________________
Pearl White 1966 Sedan

Retired US Army - 21 years 11B40, 173rd Airborne Brig. - Vietnam Combat Veteran

[Helfen]

Seems like it would be hard to gather data when your criteria for the cars is so wide open. Just look at the differences of the contributions to the thread. 12V vs. 6 volt, multi. carburetors verses stock, stock vs. modified exhaust, Different year/size engines.
Even my 65 "A" Sedan has a different engine architecture (36hp) although the size is the same as a 40hp. Distributor, carburetor, air cleaner, emission system. compared to a 40 hp 65 is way different.

It's also interesting to note that with the exception of 1967 12V and a 1300 in 1966 and 1500 in 1967, that the section we are in (1958-1967) most of the cars with their engines, carburetors and 12v. systems don't resemble how they came from the factory or the era 1958-1967.
All the differences is like comparing apples to oranges.

[iowegian]

[hopkin]

I don't run the car when it's way below freezing, two nights ago it was -13F (-25C, -37C with windchill) when I got home from the store. It got a few degrees colder later that night.

[Digger89L]

Back in the day, as they say, I owned a 59 beetle (a tourist imported model). I got it in 1967 from the original owner ...for about $400. Where I live (central Saskatchewan) we typically experience at least 4 ..often more ..months of extremely cold weather. As a previous Canadian poster mentioned, recently we've had a bit of a cold snap: overnite lows of -35C (I'll let you google the F equivalent) and that gets pushed well into the -40's with the wind chill. Anyway, "back in the day" we took winter in stride (8 months of winter, and 4 months of poor skating, as the saying goes) and often the few VW's that were around were some of the only vehicles that would start in that kind of cold. On my 59 (and later on a 63, and a 66 ) I used the electric oil pan heater (simple heating element mounted around the oil drain plug). I'd run thinner oil (5w-20) and keep the pan heater plugged in overnite ...that would facilitate easier starting at the very cold temps ...but anything in the -15 to -20C range, we didn't plug in at all ....thin oil was the answer, and cold weather starting (with a decent battery) was not an issue. Another trick we used was the double plug-in: an interior warmer (essentially a small electric space heater) AND the pan heater. The interior warmers were designed to work in the much larger North American vehicles of the day to keep the interior a bit warmish, but mainly to keep the windows from frosting over. They were super-efficient in the much smaller VW bug ...and had the added advantage of keeping the battery "warm" as well. (I helped that out by lifting up the back seat bottom to allow the warmer air to circulate around the battery). BTW....of all the early Beetles I owned, NONE had the optional gas heater ...Canadians in the 50's and 60's were much too frugal to spend the extra $80 or so for a gas heater. It was more common to see a frost scraper hanging from the interior mirror ... so you could get your passenger to keep the interior of the windshield clear of frost!!

So ...if you want to understand how the air-cooled bug performs in a 'real' winter, you should ask us guys in Canada who live in sub-arctic conditions for half the year!!! Up here, if they had an election on global warming, a lot of us would be campaigning for the YES side!! LOL

[iowegian]

[Digger89L]

Yes ...the frost shields were definitely an option as well. However, they were unsightly during the "poor skating" period ....and generally just quite ugly, all things considered!

[Gary Haberman]

It was 17 degrees in NY where I live. My '66 bug which I am restoring and leave outside would not start; then again I'm sure the battery is run down. My '62 sunroof bug lives in a heated garage-I pushed her out (why start it to move it 30 feet) and pushed the '66 in to continue working on it. I was able to start the '66 later in the day after charging the battery and warming it up. When I went to push the '62 back in it wouldn't move-I tried to start her and she lurched forward-and it wasn't in gear-WTF! Luckily I searched here to find that this is normal in cold weather-now I'll clutch it next time when it's so cold. This site is such a great source for information. I'm also changing my oil to 10W-30. When I was in college, I drove to South Dakota in January where the temp was -25. The morning after I got there, the car wouldn't start-I had it towed to a service station where the mechanic told me that I should have 5w oil in it-when he tried to drain the oil, it wouldn't come out even when the strainer cover removed! He had to use heat lamps to warm up the engine.

[Digger89L]

Interesting cold weather tales! BTW: now I'll clutch it next time when it's so cold. ....you should ALWAYS 'clutch it' when you start a standard transmission engine: handbrake on, one foot with the clutch pedal down, the other ready to press the gas pedal down. Always 'clutch it' ....warm weather or cold ..warm engine or cold. Less wear and tear on the starter if you're not turning over the transmission AND the engine when you're starting. Good habit to get into.

[EA812]

Left work at 11PM last night it was outside since 3PM temp was around 11° started right up. I just push the pedal slowly to the floor once, set the choke and be ready to gas it again once it starts. Sometimes it will stall sometimes not. I hold the clutch pedal in also.
Car 1966
engine 1600 Dp Built from parts of three different engines and old NOS Nipon P&Cs
trans: it may be the original
Converted to 12V
_________________
Project 66 Daily Driver http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=538786&highlight=
Herbie build
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=336044

[EA812]