Cold Starts / Really Cold

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gwolf

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It’s -30c at the moment and my truck just wouldn’t start tonight. I couldn’t figure it out, it would try but just couldn’t pull it off. Finally after multiple boosts and barely sputtering I thought, I need to give the old girl a minute to think. So next try I turned on the ignition and did nothing for 5 or so seconds and let the ecm read that Intake Air Sensor and figure for a second, and then, voila it instantly started just like it was already warmed up like it normally does, no matter the temperature.

Just wondering if anyone else has ever had that experience.
 

b454rat

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I’ve always heard to let it sit for 4-5 seconds before cranking. Like it’s priming the fuel system, but don’t know how accurate that is. It got to -40 below when I was stationed in Ottawa, I think thrn I had a oil pan heater. It worked lol.
 

Schurkey

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-20F (real temperature, not "wind chill") is not cold enough for a vehicle in good condition, winter-weight oil, and winter-blended fuel to fail to start.

Carburetor or fuel injection--doesn't matter. (Assumes the carb has a properly-functioning choke.)

I don't know what was accomplished with the five seconds for the vehicle to "think". I'm more likely to believe it was coincidence; or an additional fuel-priming cycle.
 

RichLo

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Is it a daily driver that gets filled up regularly or a backup that still has summer gas in it?

Winter fuel has more volitiles in it to help them fire up in the extreme cold.

Also if its not driven regularly the ethanol could have gotten some moisutre in it and started to freeze up. If you throw some HEET in the tank before winter it'll prevent that. Not needed on a daily driver though
 

smdk2500

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I use the white bottle power service. I'm sure theres better products out there but it's what we use at work and I can get it at about 3 bucks less a bottle then going to the store. I'm hoping it got mixed good enough when I put it in. When I filled last I didn't have any and just dumped some in today and topped off the tank. Hopefully there was enough movement in the tank putting the 5 gallons it took to fill it. They say that the fuel already has additive in it but i've had issues before with "treated fuel" and it only getting to -5 -10 and have gelling issues.
 

Vikingdude

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-42C here in Whitehorse Yukon. My truck developed two misc coolant leaks, one from the heater hose couple at the intake manifold and one at the heater valve. I run 65% coolant so nothing froze. I think the old rubber just can't seal at these temps. I'll wait and see if they still weep at warmer temps before I lose any sleep

Block heater (500w), oil pan heater (85w) and a battery blanket (60w) help this thing start pretty reliably, although I did have to replace the battery this week.
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mr_josh

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I have never experienced that level of cold but it seems possible that on first crank it dumped so much fuel that it flooded and letting it sit for a bit let some of that fuel evaporate. I have had a fuel injected vehicle flood itself in cold weather starting (around 0 deg F) and cranking with the throttle wide open cleared it out and got it going.

We Oregonians do wet weather just fine... temps with a minus sign in front of them are kinda foreign... :oops:
 
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