Well, I've finally found that point where as Marshall describes it: "Everything must be perfect" for cold weather starting. I started yesterday morning at like 15F without issue. This morning it was about 5F. At that point, I have now experienced what cold weather starting is in my 83' 300D. It DID start, but it took some effort. I think I may be able to start quicker next time. NORMALLY, if it's like 20F or lower I'll let it glow for around 10-15 seconds longer than the light says, hold the pedal to the floor and crank until it starts at which point I let off the fuel proportionately as it starts speeding up to keep it at a fast idle. It won't idle on it's own for a minute or two. HOWEVER... Apparently when it gets down around 5F, I need to let OFF the fuel... My startup went like this: Glow light went off around 15 seconds. I started cranking around 25 seconds with the fuel to the floor. cranked for maybe 5-10 seconds (rather slowly) and it started to make some sounds of combustion, then started dying out again. I let it crank for maybe another 5 seconds. Decided to press my luck and try for another glow cycle. I think I let it go for like 30 seconds this time. Tried cranking again with the pedal floored and again it slighty sounded like it was going to start, then started dying again. So I took my foot off the fuel and after a couple seconds it started coming to life. It was about half running with the starter still helping for a few seconds while I tried to feed in just enough fuel to keep it running. I'm just hoping I got enough charge back in the battery on my 15 minute trip to work with the defrosters and headlights and what not on. This would NOT have been possible with an "iffy" battery for sure. I couldn't believe that even this new one had that sort of power in it. (and yes I have M1 15w-50 in there).
So, at this point I guess I'll plan on using the block heater if it's supposed to go into single digits. and see if I can notice a difference (cause I didn't notice a difference at around 20F). The other potential problem is that for some reason when temps around somewhere below around 20F my wipers turn into EXTREMELY slow or maybe even stop. It did it the other day, but then it's been fine this week, but this morning they did need my help to actually make it back to rest. Levi
