4D55 Turbo wintercold starts, oil weight and additives

Hi,

Hailing from snowy, freezing, miserable Minnesota here. About to tackle my first winter in my new (to me) 88' Power Ram with a 4d55T Astron. Autumn diesel cold starts are already a little rough and I let her idle for a bit before I head out of course. But our winters approach -30F and I am hoping to use my truck a couple times a week through the snowy months. My questions stated as simply as I can:

1. Smartest way to keep engine and/or fluids warm between use. Truck is parked in unheated garage with electrical outlets.
2. Is using a lighter weight oil a good idea, or should I look at anti friction/stiction additives etc, or both?
3. What about diesel fuel additives for negative temperatures. Any recommendations to keep fuel lines free flowing?

I'm a diesel noob so lay it on me. I do have a cool split solenoid mod that allows me to warm the glow plugs with a separate dash switch, so no need to explain ignition/startup operations.

Thanks in advance!

I live in ND, so I know what you mean about our winters, I also run a fleet of semi trucks. I would use a block heater religiously. I would also use one of those stick-on heating pads on the oil pan, I only plug that in when I know it's going to be colder than -15F. My company uses Howes Diesel Treat, only because that is what we sell. According to this demonstration, Howes has LESS lubricity than diesel itself even tho it "says" lubricator on the bottle. Hot Shot performed the best on the tests.

Those with more experience on these particular engines may have knowledge that is unique to the 4D55, but I run Rotella T4 15W-40 year round. If you're using the heating pad on the pan, even only a couple hours before starting it, you should be fine with that viscosity.

Does that split solenoid have some kind of timer system to stop providing power to the glowplugs? I don't have extensive knowledge of glow plugs as the vast majority of diesels I have worked on either didn't have any kind of pre-heating system or. like Cummins, had a heater bar in the intake. The only thing I worked on that had plugs was the 6.2L Humvee. Those always expanded too much. When we changed plugs, we had to loosen them up and then turn the engine over so the compression would blow them out of the head. Usually embedding them into the inner fender.

Thanks for the input @Fingers. I am going to install a block heater as soon as I find the frost plug location. Looked on the 4D55 maintenance manual and found nothing. Guess I can probably just find it by looking where they should be. Was looking at the Hot Shot fuel and oil treatments. I'll prob try those as most folks seem to recommend em. The glow plug solenoid is connected to a switch on my dash that i flip on for 5 second intervals depending on how cold it is to warm em. It helps starting immensely and is simpler that the key activated sold start routine. Cheers!