1999 EXPLORER XLT 4.0L V6 question

[shauneriktoy]

I live in kansas and winter is slowly approaching, and with that I am new to what needs to be done to my vehicle during the winter to keep it running and starting easily on those cold mornings. I was wondering if anyone could give me some helpful tips on how to avoid dealing with starting my car and hearing it crank 8 or 9 times before firing up. I dont want to wear out my starter.

On top of some tips I was wondering if it is okay for me to inject HEET into my fuel tank. Here is a link to the one I was going to use. http://www.goldeagle.com/sites/defa...og_output/public/28201front.jpg?itok=ET5eFwWk

I just want to be sure that the yellow bottle wont hurt my car, because there are a few warning signs on the back about 2 cycle engines (honestly not sure if that applies to my vehicle)

In addition to that I was curious to know that besides putting the HEET in my car, what else I can do to avoid prolong start ups when trying to fire up my vehicle on cold mornings. I appreciate any tips

 

[XLTrunner]

I have lived in MN most of my life and know first hand the rigors of winter's cold and it's potential effect on vehicles. Like you, I'm running down the list of things I need to do or check to get my vehicles ready for winter. Fortunately, vehicles of today can handle cold weather and cold starts with their Fuel Injection systems much more efficiently than back in the days of carburetors. Up here, we're required to use ethanol blend gas on daily drivers. Ethanol is a form of alcohol...which is basically what you're buying in a can of HEET. So, if you are running ethanol, no need to use HEET (we used to live by that stuff back in the day of regular (non-ethanol) gas and carburetors). I haven't used it in decades and never have gas line freeze...even though my daily drivers sit out all winter as my collector cars stay warm and dry in the garage. On super cold nights, I'll even warm up the vehicles late at night and again very first thing in the morning to keep the battery charged and the engine "loose". Make sure your battery is strong, your coolant is full strength and the truck is up to date on newer plugs/wires/filters, etc...and, you and your truck will be fine.

 

[Mike65]

As stated above, make sure you have a strong battery, I like changing the thermostat & coolant, & serpentine belt if it has not been done. On very cold mornings I always get the engine to operating temp before driving it.

 

[sehaare]

I live in chicagoland. my 98 hadn't been a daily driver in years so it doesn't get the garage in the winter and has to sit outside. Last winter it became a dailey driver again as my daughter was using it to commute to her college classes (but still no garage privileges) . I spend a lot of time away on business trips so I knew that there were going to be times when I wasn't there to get the car to start for her if she had issues. One time while I was away and the windchill was below zero it didn't start and she couldn't get to her classes. So at that point I went full out to make sure that it didn't happen again and it never did. Here is what I did.

First - new battery old batteries hate cold weather get one with as many cold cranking amps (CCA) as you can afford.

Second - I got an oil pan pad heater that installed with adhesive on the bottom of the oil pan and she plugged in at night on a timer that came on 4 hours before she had to leave.
http://proheatproducts.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2

Finally I got a trickle battery charger that could be mounted under the hood. It got plugged in at the same time as the heater did. So 4 hours before she had to leave the oil was warming up and the battery was being charged. And as an added bonus the oil heater warmed up the entire underhood area so the battery was also warm in the morning.

We never had another issue all winter ever on far colder mornings. Now what I did was probably excessive but if you absolutely have to have your car start every morning doing this will do it. but you obviously have to have a place to plug in your car.