Cold Start Problem

Freyguy · January 18, 2005

Recently our temperatures here have gotten very cold. This morning I woke up and it was 14 degrees F out without the windchill...and it was windy. I went out about 15 minutes before I was gonna leave to warm my truck up and when I started it and began to run back inside, I noticed it was almost stalling out. It seemed that as soon as the rpm's dropped to normal after the initial startup it almost died and sounded like it was misfiring or something similar. Then it would surge back up only to go back down to almost a dead stop again. It did this probably about 5 or 6 times before I went inside. When I came back out later everything was fine and the temp and rpm's were great.

It has happened once before this year, but it has never happened in the past. I recently switched to all synthetic oil and went with Amsoil 0W-30 for the engine. Last night I put Amsoil ATF in the tranny. The engine oil should be more than sufficient for these temps. Is there something else I should look into? I figure some of the guys further up north have dealt with this before. Maybe it's just normal and something I shouldn't worry about, but it sounds so dang bad it can't be that great for the motor.

Any input you can give is appreciated.

killerZ-71 · January 18, 2005

i could have written this post, the same thing has happened to me the last two days. it has been bitter cold here, but in past years it never happened. i thought i must have gotten bad gas or something. my truck starts right up, then it wants to idle real high then come back down real low like it is going to die. i have to hit the gas pedal to keep it going, as soon as it warms up it is fine. i have not changed brands of oil or anything. i have the 5.3 not the 6.0. reading your post was really weird, because i am having the same exact issue. sorry, i can't help. i did go fill up the tank with premium this morning to see if it may help.

rascal · January 20, 2005

fuel iceing? If I understand right, your truck has to re-learn if you switch from premium to reg, not sure if it would the other way?

Freyguy · January 20, 2005

I was thinking something along those lines myself. I'll probably throw on a new fuel filter and add some addative to the gas tank to see if that helps any. Can't hurt at all!

Thanks for the reply

N900WM · January 20, 2005

This happened to me this morning just after I finished plowing. Only the truck had been operating for over an hour.

I managed to limp it to the dealer but only after several restarts. And I did dump some dry gas in with no luck. It took a mile or two before she kicked on a CEL.

We'll see what they say...

Update: OOPS! One of the Volant intake clamps broke and the intake tube fell away from the MAF. My fault. I should have checked it first. Some mechanic I am.