What happens to an engine during a cold start in sub-zero temperatures?

pishta said
Buddy in the Army told same story of trucks in German winters. Light a small fire under the oil pan. They had to use an insulated pan to prevent damage to the forest floor. German govt was anal about US forces training in the forest over there. Id think nowadays they probably have quiet generators to run block heaters in downtime. Modern Army......
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Berlin Germany late 70s early 80s. Battalion recon platoon. During the winters we had our soldiers doing 2 hour shifts in the motor pool running our gun jeeps. Fortunately our vehicles were parked in a metal building to that helped.