Outside Temperature range -22F min.

Yes, but you should visit Fairbanks in August. With all that summer sun, they grow seriously huge flowers.

 

Hey Dude! I took my son and his friend up to your neck of the continent last year and thoroughly enjoyed the outdoors in February. We stayed for a week and had -40 at night and -30 during the day. We visited the hot springs, the ski mountains, did some dog sledding, even camped out a couple nights. The Yukon Quest was just ending and it was a thrill!. We didn't rent a Prius because Avis didn't have one but that would have been a kick also. I love Fairbanks and would be there year 'round if I could make a living there. BTW, there is another Alaska Prius owner, KSlauson, in Anchorage who has over 100K on his car in similar conditions. You chould say hi to him.

Sorry this is off-topic but I just wanted to let you know there are some of us who LOVE the adveture and cold!

 

my grandfather was stationed in alaska for WWII and he still goes back every summer.

I know there is 24 hours of sunlight in the summer so parents dumb enough to tell their kids to come back when its dark may not see their kids for a couple of months.

I also know it gets sooooo cold that the parking meters actually allow you to plug your block heaters directly into them, now that's cold!!!

I bet those big rigs on ice road truckers can't ever turn off their engines when taking a break from driving to & from the de boer diamond mine.

 

not the same on pavement. we did it twice while Dad was in Army stationed at Ft. Greeley. was 1300 miles of gravel road... could say it was just a bit dusty.... and yes, replacing the front windshield is about 90% probability. that is with or without a rock shield

 

you're not only in trouble, you're really, really COLD!!! Brrrrr!!

My wife wants to know, at -40 or -50, how warm is your home? and BTW, how does one efficiently heat one's home at those temps?

thanks, all the best!

 

I would use synthetic in all climates. It is better for the engine and it will increase your MPG slightly. But espcially in cold weather it does not thicken like mollasses as conventional oil does. So, the car will not only start and run easier at those frigid temps, but it will warm up much faster.

 

Ah, reminds of the good old days of living on the western prairie of Minnesota...

Winter of 1996/97, for 6 weeks it never got above -30F. That is not counting "wind chill".

No, I really, really, REALLY do NOT miss it.

 

What an incredible life you lead! It must be crazy beautiful up there. I grew up in Vermont and the coldest I have ever seen was -30 and that was painful.I remember my old man was stationed in Hicado Japan during the Koren war and said it got -50 over there. He said you could put a six pack of beer outside the barracks for 5 minutes and would freeze almost solid. It would be fantastic if you would do a test for all us PCer's. Put a cup of dino oil outside overnight and put a cup of Mobil 1 full synthetic 0-20 out too when you have one of your crazy -30 nights. Let them sit overnight. Please post what you find. Thats some real life testing there. Good luck!

 

With the shop and the attached garage at my hobby farm, I did the slab footings down 8 ft as recommended. I then put 3 inches of Styrofoam SM on the exterior of the footing wall, down to the footing itself. The interior of the footing wall I put 2 inches of Styrofoam SM down to the footings before backfilling

No permafrost here, but rather poor soil conditions for building a structure. Lot's of clay in the soil, a Gumbo like mixture. So I had piling done for the footings, slab, and the short cement driveway between the shop and the house

With the detached shop, I used 12 inch ICF for the exterior walls. Ceiling is SIP from Global Panel Systems, 5.5 inches thick, with 6 inch Roxul mineral wool batts over top. So in theory I have R-50 walls and R-60 roof

Before I poured the shop slab I put down 4 inch Styrofoam over compacted gravel, to ensure there is good drainage from the slab. At the worst, I have a few teeny hairline cracks in the slab outside of the expansion joints

If I choose to heat the detached shop I have a Stelpro 7.5 KW electric shop heater. Even at -40 I *never* have cold corners on my slab, I usually set the electric heater to +5 C and it costs around $50 a month in cold weather

The house I built with 12 inch ICF walls. Also used ICF for the basement, with piling done on the footings and slab itself. I have Polar tripanes in the house, with Low-E and Argon. I still put up plastic on the interior to keep frost/condensation off the windows

I have an airtight woodstove in the basement, with outside air intake to the stove. It will very easily heat the house to roasty temps at -40. There is also an airtight fireplace insert in the living room, on a separate chimney, with outside air intake.

Normal heating is provided by a gas Bryant 60,000 BTU Evolution variable speed furnace. At -40, the furnace will heat the house at low fire, it will only ramp up to high fire if I happen to change the furnace setpoint higher

 

I've done that with Esso XD-3 0W-40, Mobil 1 0W-30, and a regular 5W-30. At -38 F, the 0W-40 will slowly pour from the bottle. The Mobil 1 0W-30 will also pour from the bottle, quicker than the 0W-40. The 5W-30 will just sit in the bottle, you can even leave the bottle upended and nothing happens

Diesel fuel is interesting. Number 2 or "summer" diesel will form wax and slowly turn solid. I once put #2 in a gallon size glass pickle jar, and left it in a shed outside. Once the temps got to -25 C, a weird but pretty wax ball formed in the middle of the liquid

As the temps got colder, the wax ball grew until most of the free liquid had been transformed into wax. Imagine the same process happening in a fuel tank, the fuel line, and the fuel filters

With the diesel tractor at my hobby farm, I'm pretty careful about using #1 fuel in winter. I actually have 2 storage tanks, for different season blends. I also use a lot of fuel treatment to ensure I don't have a problem in winter

Haven't tried the 0W-20 yet, but I promise to do so during our next cold snap. Currently we're having a balmy tropical heat wave, it may even reach 0 C tomorrow!

 

Most conventional oils turn solid at temps of -30 C and colder. Esso has done extensive winter testing of gear oils, motor oils, etc to determine safe operating limits

Esso also claims that if winter temps are consistently colder than -40, an engine canopy heater is recommended to avoid snapping drive belts

http://esso.ca/Canada-English/Files/Products_Lubes/IOCAENPVLESAtf_Dex_III_Mer.pdf

http://esso.ca/Canada-English/Files/Products_Lubes/IOCAENCVLESEsso_GO_GX_EX.pdf

http://esso.ca/Canada-English/Files/Products_Lubes/IOCAENCVLESEsso_Xd-3_extra.pdf

http://esso.ca/Canada-English/Files/Products_Lubes/IOCAENCVLESEssotran_MG.pdf

http://esso.ca/Canada-English/Files/Products_Lubes/IOCAENCVLESHydraul.pdf

http://esso.ca/Canada-English/Files/Products_Lubes/IOCAENINDESUnivis_Extra.pdf

 

Interesting. Last year at -38 F, I had the opposite results comparing Esso XD-3 0W-40 to a regular Quaker State 5W-30. The Esso XD-3 flowed much better

I did check out the Valvoline web site, and Valvoline does rate their oil as follows:

http://www.valvoline.com/products/All-Climate.pdf

http://www.valvoline.com/products/Synpower.pdf

The conventional 5W-20 has a pour point of -36 C, a CCS value of 4,700 cP at -30 C, and an MRV of 16,000 cP at -35 C.

The "Synpower" 5W-20 has a pour point of -45 C. The CCS is 4,200 cP at -30 C, and the MRV is 13,500 cP at -35 C.

If you wondering why the test points are -30 C for cold cranking but -35 C for cold pumping, that is the way the SAE regulates the test. An oil rated 0W-xx has the CCS at -35 C and the MRV at -40 C

Note: "pour point" is *not* a regulated test point standard like CCS or MRV. It has no bearing on lubrication and is usually self-tested by the manufacturer. Only a regulated test like CCS or MRV should be used as a guide.

It's important to note that the SAE test - and your eyeball test - was performed on oil fresh from the bottle. An oil in use has acids and nitration that can cause quite dramatic viscosity increases. This is known as "gellation" and has been responsible for engine failure, either an oil pump drive has sheared or oil refused to flow

In real world testing, once a conventional oil has some use, the pour point depressants are used up and cold start pumping viscosity - MRV - goes off the chart.

I absolutely agree that an oil pan heater is mandatory if consistent operating temps are -30 and especially -40 and colder.

You may find these articles informative. We receive them at work

Temperature Stability

Low Temperature and Viscosity Limits

 

It's all perspective. I grew up on a farm in northern MN, and we'd have days of -40'F (or -40'C, as someone pointed out). Of course we'd have to go out and feed the livestock every day, you just need to make sure you're wearing your sorels and choppers in addition to regular winter clothes. Long johns go on at about 10'F or colder, that helps a lot. No such thing as weather too cold, just being underdressed.

Then out of college, in July, I moved to Dallas for my first job. Drove down in a car without air-conditioning (rare to have it in those days in MN). I had seen in a weather guide somewhere that TX in the summer stays in the upper 70's all night long, gets up to mid or upper 90's during the day, but I didn't really believe it until I arrived. I stayed there nearly two years, and that was more than enough - first time I ever got cabin fever!

All summer long in TX (which is May to October) you go from your air-conditioned house to the air-conditioned car to go to your air-conditioned job. Occasionally you go to an air-conditioned store. In a MN winter I would go outside skiing and snowshoeing and snowmobiling and ice-fishing (altho that gets too cold for my taste, since you aren't moving around). Even the winters in TX were a disappointment. It just gets brown and drab. No white snow, no green pines and spruce and balsam trees. Can't go skiing. (Downhill or cross-country or telemark, although the Texans only distinguish between water and "snow" skiing). There's only two or three weeks of spring and fall that are really worth anything. That's MN weather all summer, highs in the 70's, sometimes 80's. With skies that are really blue, not gray at the horizon, and puffy white clouds. Maybe it's the humidity (hopefully not pollution), but down south nice skies were rare.

Back more to the point - cold snow is actually better for driving than the wet slushy stuff you get in, say, the mid-Atlantic region (also lived in D.C. for awhile, moderately better climate, CT was even better). The cold snow (cooler than 20'F) has better grip, once driven on it's more like packed gravel really, unless it's packed into ice. (When it gets down to 0'F, when you kick a snow chunk it skitters along, making a sound like a tin can.) My Prius, stock tires, no VSC, hasn't had any unexpected problems in snow and ice here in Illinois or southern MN. I couldn't get up my friend's driveway on Sunday, but it's a steep driveway and it was coming down fast and wet (4" snow in about an hour) and I couldn't get a run at it (would bottom out where I leave the street), and with my wife watching, it wasn't worth trying out various techniques. It was easier to park on the street and walk the 50 feet.

So here I am in northern IL. As far north as I could return before I got lured into marriage by a "local". It gets below zero a couple times a winter, so I can go out and shovel snow and get a little taste of nice cold weather that wakes you up and makes you realize you're still alive.

Sorry about the reminiscing, hope it wasn't excessive.

 

No Prius, but more cold weather fun: Put a bottle of bubble-blowing soap into a warm inner pocket. Go outside when it's not windy, and blow some bubbles with warm lung-air. They will freeze from the top to the bottom (thinnest to thickest). Then, they can no longer shrink as the fill-air cools, and they implode with the smallest tinkling sound you can possibly imagine.