Starting a Lycoming in cold wx.

Thought I'd share this. Sometimes the old-timers do some wacky things,
and I wouldn't advocate this, but I think it's a good story.

One 80-year old stick here has a nice 172. No hangar. When planning
the next start to be in cold wx: Shuts the thing down, drains a full
GATTS jar of avgas and pours it in the crankcase. Starts it back up for
1-2 mins.

Then, starts it the next time with no preheater (it gets down to about
0F at worst here, usually 10-20F). Swears the diluted oil is thinner,
and no need for pre-heat, then the avgas just burns off when the engine
heats up.

I researched a little bit and fascinatingly, older radials had a very
similar "oil dilution" system.

Don't try this at home.

T