Starting any piston engine at negative temperatures was interesting. The Bristol rep in New York (we were working Britannias) told us of trying to operate Bristol Freighters up North in Canada. He said you could not even pull a cold-soaked Hercules with its sleeve valves through unless it was preheated.
In the Sixties, the RAAF had two Convair 440 Metropolitans based at Canberra. Mid winter in Canberra could be cold and so the evening before a Convair was scheduled to fly next morning, it was left in a hangar and heaters placed under the engine nacelles to warm the 40 gallon oil tank. Without that pre-heat, the engines had to be run at idle RPM for up to 20 minutes before engine oil temps reached the minimum of 40 C before run-up. This long time at idle RPM inevitably resulted in spark plug fouling.