Newbie to forum, couple of questions

[drainsurgin]

 Hi folks, am new to forum.  I have a 1992 Jetta td 1.6 .300k   She was pretty gummed up when i got her. The previous owner didnt use the proper oil. It was gooey. After running rotella t and adding auto rx,it is a lot better . I could tell by the weight of the oil filters. It was really smokey before. It is getting way less black smoke and just a bit of grey now. Oil consumption was large before, but now is minimal. Last weekend I pulled the valve cover off soaked it in gas then off to the car wash. I had a ton of oil going thru the blow by. Not much now . 

I live in a northern climate and it can go to -40 c . I have read all the tips on cold starting . The car starts pretty well at -10c so compression is still good . all glow plugs are functioning . Battery is still solid but may need to be changed weel see. I pulled the starter apart and cleaned it up and greased it . (seemed to make a difference). My question :some people put a shot of kerosene in with the diesel to improve cetane . Is this ok.  I am also considering giving this a shot of propane some time to see if it would help cold starting . I hear eather is really bad for a td .This is my daily driver. I dont have a plug in at work.  any suggestions would help.

I also am considering putting on a boost controller to bring up the performance. Are those manual ones worth putting on.    thanks    clark

[dangerous_D]

You've probably already figured out kerosene is fine as a fuel additive.  I add a bit of paraffin wax to every tank for viscosity and cetane enhancement, but that's not a good idea for you in the winter.  The paraffin makes ULSD more like 1981 pump diesel, which is what my car was designed to use.  These engines will run on just about anything.  Within a month of getting my 1.6 N/A I ran out of fuel on a busy road (not smart, but I was successful in my attempt to see how many miles I go on a single tank).  While I was waiting for my buddy to pick me up I remembered I had a bottle of Diesel Kleen in the trunk.  I poured the remainder of the bottle into the tank, started her up, and drove to the nearest parking lot.  I once added a full 1 lb of paraffin wax to my 10 gallon tank to no ill effect, and actually saw modest gains in performance and efficiency.

There are a lot of different opinions on fuel additives in the VW diesel community.  Search the forums and read what others are doing and start experimenting.

Have fun!

[rodpaslow]

Coming from the same country you live in (Saskatoon) I had 1 car many years ago (I think it was a 82 1.6 NA) that would start in -40°C, not plugged in.  I'm sure it was not good for it as it would miss for about the next 5 minutes till it got some heat in it.  My current 90 1.6 NA will not start any colder than about -15 to -17°C not plugged in. 

I'm not sure what may help, but I could be wrong with help from the forum, but VW are able to run a certain percentage of gas (probably came from people haveing problems with gas attendants).  This may help when we see below -30°C, otherwise I'd suggest looking for a plug-in or going (hate to say it) gas. 

I have a plug in at home and at work.  I put two block heaters at either end of the block.  Will start in -40°C and colder with the two heaters. Sorry couldn't help more!

[aviologist]

Kerosene will help bring the gell point of your fuel to a lower level. I run straight jet-A/b and it will not frezze until -58c or something like that. I live in Calgary and so it should cover me on those cold mornings. I don't have a plug in at work so I let mine run for a bit during the day, heater off and in 15 minutes it comes right up to temp. Its not great to let them idle like that but a cold start is probably not so good either. Don't use any starting fluid! It dries out your cylinder walls and can cause damage. You could also blow the head right off the little bedazzler. Good luck! PS. Get yourself a friend in the aviation field...