Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

As it was starting to get cold here in Canmore (below -5), I was having to do 3 glows in the morning and then it was still spluttering a little but it starts perfectly now with the block heater.

I hate to say this, but there is something seriously wrong if you're needing to plug in at -5, or if you have to do 3 glow cycles at that temperature!

I'd check that your glow plugs are good, and your batteries as well.

I haven't had any heater installed yet, and I have started successfully down to -20 (haven't tried colder) and I don't start doing the multiple glow cycle thing until at least -10 to -15

I've started at -20 without the block heater. My wife and I lived in the van camping around BC/AB in Jan-March at the start of the year. But it does take awhile to warm up and smokes at low temps. Just to clarify, by the time I was getting to my van that was parked out in the open overnight the dash temp gauge read below -5 eg. 8 or 10 (overnight it was probably lower than that) and I would use a few glows before starting it. It's not that my van won't start but I'd certainly prefer not to grind the starter over when I can preventatively spend 20 secs glowing it or plug into the heater as it is now.

using the glow plugs is good, but at those temperatures 1 cycle should be plenty and it should turn over quite quickly. I suspect you could use new plugs...