Hotrod, agree 100%. Twenty years with 210; battery, oil, seals and cylinders are all warm.

A quick question if I may that I don't see discussed within this thread. Does anyone use a battery heater, blanket type or other sort ? A warm battery has significantly more cranking power that a stone cold one. In my younger days at latitudes much farther north than I am now we regularly took the battery(s) into a warm space at night or on an extended stay at an out station.

The Cessna POH has a detailed Cold start procedure that worked perfectly for me one time I just could not get a start in very cold weather. It involved many primes and turning the prop manually over during the process. It worked right away after following the POH instructions carefully.

Over the last few years I've gone through the following to get the plane starting consistently:
1. Firewall forward battery, note this can cause CSG issues as mentioned in the other thread. I heard from Kenmore that they keep the battery in the back but run additional wiring to help with starting.
2. New Mags, I had a mag with 600 hours and it was causing starting issues.
3. Heavy Hartzell starter
4. Upgraded prime system to 6 point prime - my old prime system had the incorrect nozzle and was not 6 point.
5. Upgraded to finewire plugs.

Mapleflt wrote:A quick question if I may that I don't see discussed within this thread. Does anyone use a battery heater, blanket type or other sort ? A warm battery has significantly more cranking power that a stone cold one. In my younger days at latitudes much farther north than I am now we regularly took the battery(s) into a warm space at night or on an extended stay at an out station.

When I was in Fairbanks, I had a small heat pad under the battery or a heat muff around the battery on work planes. My personal 170 had battery on firewall so not needed.

I picked up a new Husky, and first winter, and back then they used crappy batteries. Mine was replaced with an Odyssey, at my request. So, I’m working out of Fort Yukon for a week or so, plane plugged in at night, battery aft, and every morning it cranks like crazy at -35 or colder.

I get home and for some reason opened the battery access, and there was no heater on the battery! Turns out mechanics had pulled the heat wrap off the old battery and never put it back on the Odyssey.

Flew that battery lots in very cold weather and never had a Start problem. Odyssey batteries, in my experience, are virtually immune to cold. Certainly not the case with other batteries, though.

Current plane, I dumped the heavy battery and mounted the Odyssey to firewall. Best mod I’ve done.

MTV

Huskytracks - thanks for the link to the engine's operators manual. Pipeliner, thanks for the heads up on your preheating temps. Thanks to everyone else for the comments as well. Very helpful!

Second update: What I have realized over a couple days of repeated colder weather operation is that my engine seems to be sensitive to anything below 40-45. She didn't want to go again early Saturday morning with temps of 34 at the airport that morning. I came back that afternoon with temps in the mid to high 40's and she fired right up once I gave the battery a good charge. What is interesting to me is that 10 degrees seems to make that much of a difference, apparently all the difference.

Sorry, but I just have to ask why?? Why would you keep attempting cold starts over multiple days? Did you test your blockheater? Buy a cheap genset? Engine cover? Yes, these engine will start in the cold with proper technique, but being the single most expensive part on the plane - why not baby it? I know I sure want (Well more like NEED) to get every hr possible out of mine before I have to overhaul. I preheat at anything below 50/55. Maybe even higher. Overkill? Maybe, maybe not, but I think it's worth it.

There's a reason genset engines, run for way more hrs than the same engine in a piece of mobile equipment - most wear occurs at startup and most wear at startup is due to cold engine tolerances.


But - If you must. Not sure if you put an engine monitor in yet, but even if you haven't - do a cruise lean inflight mag check. Besides a cold start situation, the inflight check will show any weakness's in the ignition system. Might be worth pulling the starter off and giving the bearings a feel too. A starter on the way out also really shows up on a cold start. Should take no more than 5 inch/lbs of torque to rotate over, feel smooth and no clunking when you tip it top to bottom. You'd be surprised what you might find. Starter is very easy to pull.

As I noted earlier, get a mechanic to check your magneto timing. There are two timings in each mag. It’s pretty likely that that timing is off in one or both mags.

Like Mark, I would not keep trying the same thing expecting a different result. Find out what’s not working.....

Pre heat is a great idea, but it may just hide the actual problem. I highly recommend pre heat, but your engine SHOULD start fine at those temps.

Get it checked by a professional.

MTV

Mark Y. wrote:Sorry, but I just have to ask why?? Why would you keep attempting cold starts over multiple days? Did you test your blockheater? Buy a cheap genset? Engine cover? Yes, these engine will start in the cold with proper technique, but being the single most expensive part on the plane - why not baby it? I know I sure want (Well more like NEED) to get every hr possible out of mine before I have to overhaul. I preheat at anything below 50/55. Maybe even higher. Overkill? Maybe, maybe not, but I think it's worth it.

Mark, ask away. As you can probably surmise, much of this is new to me as a pilot and airplane owner. I'm still figuring out all these little tricks, tips, rules of thumb, etc for this airplane, and in general. There are a lot of things I realize I don't know hence why I'm asking some fairly basic questions. I appreciate the feedback, even if its to say I'm a dumb-ass for trying the same thing twice to expect a different result. Haha. I have thick skin and appreciate that. In the end, acknowledging my mistakes will make me a better pilot and steward of the aircraft. Nonetheless, I did test the block heater, it works, so I will be using it going forward......Lesson learned, hopefully no damage done in the process.


MTV - The airplane come out of annual in November, they adjusted the mag timing at that point, but I'll have my shop look into it again to make sure there's not an underlying issue. Thanks for everyone's comments.

Lol, not trying to call you a dumb$$......Very nice plane you have there and just want to see you give it the care it deserves! I would really recommend pulling your starter and giving it an inspection - stiff bearings will take out your adaptor and then possibly the engine in extreme cases. If it cranks slow it can also increase your chances of a kickback that will take out the adaptor, besides giving hard starting. As I said starter shaft shouldn't clunk when you flip it and it should easy turn both directions with the shaft end pinched between your thumb and forefinger. When I bought my 182B, it just had the engine done due to cam corrosion. The previous owner knew he was selling it so went el-cheapo and had the A/P install "used serviceable" accessories. First few months I had relatively slow cranking (compared to my old 172) and new battery never helped. I pulled the starter and found the shaft clunking back and forth and rough stiff bearings - needed vise grip to turn it. Lucky I never took out the adaptor. I installed a new ball bearing tempest and a big difference in crank speed. Well worth the 20 min to check it out. Continentals have the easiest starter you will ever pull.

Nushi wrote:

Mark Y. wrote:Sorry, but I just have to ask why?? Why would you keep attempting cold starts over multiple days? Did you test your blockheater? Buy a cheap genset? Engine cover? Yes, these engine will start in the cold with proper technique, but being the single most expensive part on the plane - why not baby it? I know I sure want (Well more like NEED) to get every hr possible out of mine before I have to overhaul. I preheat at anything below 50/55. Maybe even higher. Overkill? Maybe, maybe not, but I think it's worth it.

Mark, ask away. As you can probably surmise, much of this is new to me as a pilot and airplane owner. I'm still figuring out all these little tricks, tips, rules of thumb, etc for this airplane, and in general. There are a lot of things I realize I don't know hence why I'm asking some fairly basic questions. I appreciate the feedback, even if its to say I'm a dumb-ass for trying the same thing twice to expect a different result. Haha. I have thick skin and appreciate that. In the end, acknowledging my mistakes will make me a better pilot and steward of the aircraft. Nonetheless, I did test the block heater, it works, so I will be using it going forward......Lesson learned, hopefully no damage done in the process.


MTV - The airplane come out of annual in November, they adjusted the mag timing at that point, but I'll have my shop look into it again to make sure there's not an underlying issue. Thanks for everyone's comments.

Mark may have the answer, but the point is, there's something wrong, so it's time to talk to your mechanic. As I said, there's two timings in mags. Mechanics don't always check the internal timing when they look at mags. BUT, could be a starter as Mark is suggesting.

Get your mechanic to look at the starter as Mark described, and help him with that.....learning hands on.

MTV

Same thing happened to me last winter.

All the advice given so far is sound. I will add another vote for an improved primer. You plane, like mine, has the single point primer. I swapped in a 6 point primer from a newer 182 and it made a world of difference.

Third update on this; I've been flying alot over the last month in cold (to me) temps; teens - 30F. The mechanic checked the mags again and they checked out as they should. Same with the starter. We inspected and tested the block heater and it works as it should as well. All that was an interesting learning experience for me.

After starting to use the block heater, the plane is back to being an easy starter. Per POH instructions of 5-6 primes, added 1/4" - 1/2" throttle and she fires right up. Problem seemingly solved. Thanks for the advice fellas.