Quote Originally Posted by Crusty View Post
I once talked with an old trucker who ran the Montana outback regularly during the worst of winter when it gets really cold. He told me that one of his secrets was to carry a heavy canvas tarp and a bag of charcoal. When it got so cold that his diesel gelled he spread the tarp over the left side tank and engine and then built a charcoal fire under the tarp off to the side to heat and reliquify his diesel and warm the oil in the pan so that he could get his truck to bust off. He also had electric as well as coolant recirc heaters installed on his truck to keep it liquid once it was running. It sounded really dangerous to me but he'd been doing it for years with no unplanned fires.
I recall truckers using acetylene as an engine start helper. But that can end up bending a connecting rod, that is what I was told when watching this. So I have no idea how they metered that. Preheat igniters must not have been a standard diesel component back then.