It’s our first real cold snap (with snow on the ground, even) — it only got down to 31 last night, though.
I decided to try to see whether the Mercedes would start, and it won’t. It cranks plenty fast, but doesn’t fire.
I don’t think it’s that the fuel has gelled for a couple of reasons: one, it’s got about a B50 mix in it right now, which should prevent gelling to a much lower temperature; and also, I was able to get the F-250 (which has B100 in it) to start without too much trouble.
I think the issue is the Mercedes’ low compression numbers. It just doesn’t build up enough compression heat to ignite the fuel when it’s this cold outside.
It would be worthwhile to plug in the block heater and see if that makes a difference.
Rancho Zoidberg 