Is Mid-Winter Engine Start Advised?

Raspy · Feb 23, 2011

djradz said:
You said you put it away in November, so it has sat only for ~3 months. I would plug it in for several hours, give it a couple of pre-heat cycles and then start it up. Throttle should be set a little less than half. Let it run for at least a half-hour, but not just sitting still, take if for a ride and get everything moving.

This is the best advice. ^^^^

No need to crank it without starting and it's not a good idea to just let it run cold with no load in the cold weather. Engines need to get up to temp and stay there long enough to drive off condensation. Diesels warm up slowly because of their extra mass and all the extra air that they pump through. Best to give it a small job.

Keeping the fuel tank full is also very good practice. Algae loves wet diesel fuel. The 2 stroke oil is just an attempt to make up for the low sulfur diesel that has less lubrication than the older stuff. Probably not needed as I haven't heard of a rash of injection failures related to the newer fuel. As an example, my Cummins has 5,277 hours and 223,000 miles on it. No two stroke oil and no problems with the injection system yet.

No need to kill the battery or wear out the starter trying to pre-lube the engine, there is still oil in the bearings. It will probably crank a bit longer anyway and then you can run it at a high idle for a few seconds before pulling away gently. Get it warmed up with a mild load.