Winterize....Alberta bound.

prairiefire · Post by **prairiefire** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 10:53 am

Hello All!

I'm soon to be Alberta bound for work and was planning on driving out from Vancouver. Can anyone give me any tips on extra precautions I should take. Any thing special I should do to winterize the beast. Thanks in advance.

K

drrod · Post by **drrod** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 11:18 am

Nothing special. Just make sure your antifreeze and cooling system are in good shape.
In block plug in heater, synthetic 0-30 or 5-30 oil and a battery maintainer and you should be good to go.

Rod

CREGAN · Post by **CREGAN** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 12:01 pm

drrod wrote:Nothing special. Just make sure your antifreeze and cooling system are in good shape.
In block plug in heater, synthetic 0-30 or 5-30 oil and a battery maintainer and you should be good to go.

Rod

I run 15w40 synthetic and my coolant is good past -38. Make sure your glow plugs are up to snuff and bring an extention cord to plug it in. You will do fine. Where abouts in Alberta are you bound?

Craig

prairiefire · Post by **prairiefire** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 12:31 pm

I've already got a block heater but I was thinking of getting an inline coolant heater installed. Was gonna flush the coolant system and go with new fluid and thermostat at the same time. Glow plugs are fine (2 years old). Haven't touched the IP seal yet, but I have no issues starting out here. Gonna stick with reg 15w40 though. I've got 3 pails of it to go through from a Walmart deal. Looks like I'm heading out towards Ft. Mac. Not sure yet....waiting on my call. Pipeline Bound!!!

CREGAN · Post by **CREGAN** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 1:07 pm

Yeah it gets pretty cold in Fort Mac. I was going to say the inline heater was a bit much, but where you are headed that is a good idea.

Craig

Mr. Flibble · Post by **Mr. Flibble** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 1:40 pm

Fort Mac? A battery pad heater may be a good idea too. I think a charger will keep the battery somewhat warm, but a battery pad heater is effective and inexpensive.

prairiefire · Post by **prairiefire** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 2:01 pm

Battery Pad heater....is that like a battery blanket? I'm going to a camp job so my van will be sitting around and not being driven. Was gonna fire it up every Sunday (my day off).

Mr. Flibble · Post by **Mr. Flibble** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 2:07 pm

Sort of:

: Pad_Heater_.jpg (8.97 KiB) Viewed 8642 times

It sits under your battery, so if you can plug in your block heater, you can plug in the pad too, and it keeps the battery warm.

CREGAN · Post by **CREGAN** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 2:21 pm

Mr. Flibble wrote:Sort of:

Pad_Heater_.jpg
It sits under your battery, so if you can plug in your block heater, you can plug in the pad too, and it keeps the battery warm.

Plus you can get a little inverter and you can sit on it as drive back to civilzation from Fort Mac! Multi-functional seat warmer. ;)

Craig

Mr. Flibble · Post by **Mr. Flibble** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 3:08 pm

CREGAN wrote: Plus you can get a little inverter and you can sit on it as drive back to civilzation from Fort Mac! Multi-functional seat warmer. ;)
Craig

LOL! Heck, if he is going to Fort Mac, and does not have heated seats, then I would HIGHLY recommend he install them. Costs about $55/seat and takes less than 2 hours per seat. In fact, would probably take less with the walkthrough I posted.

prairiefire · Post by **prairiefire** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 5:17 pm

drrod wrote: Just make sure your antifreeze and cooling system are in good shape.

Rod

What do you mean by that exactly? New A/F and a good rad/water pump and thermostat. Just curious about what could go wrong if I'm ill prepared.

k

NoDelie · Post by **NoDelie** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 6:29 pm

I live in Calgary and i have a oil pan heater,block heater and run synthetic oil. If you run 15/40 you could blow a head gasket. Even if you just have a block heater, that is good. Heat you oil

Firesong · Post by **Firesong** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 8:32 pm

Biggest thing is block heater. 2nd is synthetic 0/40 or 5/40 oil. 3rd good batteries. The rest is trivial.

alti2d · Post by **alti2d** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 8:59 pm

I'm in Fort Mac and do just fine with a block heater (required) and 0w30 synthetic (much better than 15w40). And about 15 minutes of warm up time before heading out. If you end up in town we can have a deli meet. :)

drrod · Post by **drrod** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 10:36 pm

prairiefire wrote:
drrod wrote: Just make sure your antifreeze and cooling system are in good shape.

Rod
What do you mean by that exactly? New A/F and a good rad/water pump and thermostat. Just curious about what could go wrong if I'm ill prepared.

k

Just make sure that the coolant is relatively new, good for -40, water pump in good shape, no big leaks, etc.
BTW, I would save your 15w oil for summer and change out to a lighter weight for winter.
Rod

Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club