Block heaters and all that

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

I had the decidedly "interesting" experience of spending January 1945 as a
tank mechanic with Task Force Frigid, an Army exercise to explore how well our
combat units could cope in the anticipated war in Siberia (answer: ho ho ho!).
Temperatures ranged from a high of -55 to a low of -72, and later in the
spring when it reached zero the unit celebrated with a softball game in
shirtsleeves. My route to TFF took me through a stopover in Great Falls,
Montana (chilly) and another stopover in Edmonton, Alberta (decidedly
chillier).

In AD7-332 Carson Damm, having just bought an '87 Milano Platinum whose
previous owner had said "it doesn't start too good when it's cold out", asked
about block heaters and such. 

Rich Wagner, of Manitou Springs, CO, 38 degrees north, replied "When it's
really cold out (near zero), it does turn over more slowly.  It still starts
without any problem, though.  While some form of preheater is nice, it really
shouldn't be a necessity unless you're expecting deep subzero temps".

Fred Di Matteo, who spent his last pre-Florida years in the benign climate of
coastal southern Maine (44 degrees north) added "If Alfa Romeo engineers
thought for one moment that engine block heaters would ever be necessary, I
think they would have made provisions for such."

I thought it was Fred who once told me a jocular story of an executive from
Milan posted to the United States who wired back to the effect that "Those
tales were not exaggerations, it really does get that cold here, and that hot,
too-"  I do know that Paul Tenney, in relatively mild Iowa, had described the
block heater as "A gorgeously, magically efficient and effective device" which
he "wouldn't think of being without" in an unheated garage. And I do know that
Fred's great friend, the late Herb Bridge, wrote favorably (in Velocissima)
about using resistance heaters in the lower radiator hose on his later Alfas.

Carson Damm lives in northern Canada, far from the tempering effect of the
oceans, at about 57 degrees north. I don't know what the normal winter low
temperatures are in Ft. McMurray, Alberta but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if
it was -20 or -30 fairly regularly, and -40 or -50 occasionally. I suspect
Fred, Rich, I, and some thoroughly competent Milanese engineers would be
shopping for block heaters if we lived there, notwithstanding the availability
of "10W40 synthetics that pour at below freezing temperatures".

Cordially, 

John H. 

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