Wrong way to go...ice and frost scraping...IMHO!

If it is cold, a proper warm up is ALWAYS in order. Don't jump in the van,
start up and drive away a cold or partway warmed engine. Everyone is in such
a blasted hurry these days when it isn't really necessary 99.9% of the time.
Save your engine, Give it some warmup time to get to proper operating
temperature.

Give yourself enough time to go out and start the engine, turn on the
heaters and defrosters, and go back in the house for a cup of coffee. Let
the engine warm up good, at the idle speed. As it heats up, obviously it is
going to begin putting out hot water to the heat system. The heat and
defrost systems will take care of the frozen water. Just a shop towel will
remove the melted water at that point. And the van will be warm for a
comfortable drive. And the engine will be at proper operating
temperature...all parts will be properly expanded  to operating fit and
clearances there by reducing wear, and oil will be at normal operating temps
also reducing the wear.

If your rig is aircooled, you will have to be more diligent, but it will
work similarly as well.

Good luck!!

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver

"jay m." wrote:

> Well, we all know about the not-so-smooth shifting when the cold weather
> sets in (redline users excluded, or so I hear).  But this morning I
> realized my second winter vanagon complaint:
>
> there sure are a lot of windows to scrape ice off of!  by the time i was
> done this morning there were piles of frost on my feet.
>
> --shraks