Briefly, My 4WD lost the tranny and I had to put the L into daily service . Of course this would happen the first time it snows this winter, and, we set a record low for Jan 23rd.......-8 degrees. To make matter worse I couldn't get the L up a hill and into the garage so it sat out last night.

She was not a happy camper; it spit, sputtered and backfired before warming up. Once at operating temp it still felt like it wasn't hitting on all cylinders. It took about 10 miles on the interstate before it smoothed out.

I'm fairly heavily modded with headers, big pulley, chip, filter, T/B, e-fan and water pump. Do unmodded trucks hate the below zero temps as much as the modded trucks?

 

No.

Mine is not heavily modded and it doesn't mind cold weather. 1 vote for no.

 

i run a 4#er, filter, chip, denso it20s, e fan and e pump and mine starts up nice and smooth in the indiana weather. we had 0 degrees F (negative 32 F) out today and have been having sub -10 degree weather for the past week...

like someone else suggested in another post, could it be that your chip was not tuned rich enough for startups in the cold? also what plugs are you running?

 

I've driven my Lightning at -50*F and the only thing that cant keep up is the heater (frost forms on the INSIDE of the windows). Then I promptly plowed into a moose.

 

my lightning is away for winter, but before i put it away i was driving in 25 degress weather, i'm not as modded(yet), but i had a chip & filter at the time, the truck ran great although i was really afraid of something happening due to the cold(like a lean condition) so i never really got on it. as for idle it actually seemed smoother during the cold. maybe your plugs are going? or a "winter gas" condition? or maybe your right and it was just to cold. i hate winter

 

I think it may have something to do with the chip. Mine runs fine when really cold and I am as modified as you are. But others run bad too.

Wkuper11, Where in CT you from>???

Oh yeah....400 posts!!!!! Yay. -Mat-

 

SVT 150- I'm from Southington

 

do you have a winter program on the chip?

 

I'd have to agree. These heaters suck when it comes to seriously cold weather.

BTW Tundra, I remember when you did that. I laughed my azz off. Not that it's funny you damaged your truck. We have a pretty healthy moose population around here too. I better watch out so one don't jump in front of me

 

Thanks for the responses.

For some reason I thought Tundra would have a response if he was on the boards

I am running NGK TR6s i believe. I think it might be the fuel programming on the chip after what you all have said. I am running a "cold weather" program, but, I know I told my tuner I would never drive it in cold weather. The chip is set up for cool weather and the other side is warm weather/racing.

Just for the heck of it, I'm going to pull the plugs and check to make sure what I have in there now.

Cool weather is great but 8 below.....blows.

 

mine runs pretty good in the cold, like a raped ape with loads of power for sure. but as far as starting up goes, no problems and she idles good. this was like 10 degree weather when I had to move it out of the garage temporarily and she sat outside for about 5 hours.

 

I've got JDM's street chip from June of 2001 (which netted me a 13.17@106 last year), airfilter and straight pipes out the side as my only mods. I am driving it this winter with all the mods on it and I don't have any problems whatsoever. I think your problems are from the plugs and you tune (geared towards performance).

I'd get a richer program or even take out the chip alltogether. BEFORE everyone jumps at me let me say this. With those mods the stock program should definately not be run in the summer. But in the winter, I don't think the boost will creep above 0 let alone 15 or 16 psi. I know mine rarely sees anything over 0 and if it does, the tires spin pretty good.

I can't wait until summer!

 

Cool how old are you and where do you usually cruise if at all>??? Maybe we can meet up some time. -Mat-

 

My truck is basically stock (only a K&N), the last week it was in the teens and on startup (after truck sit for a day) I got a slight backfire, that was the first time I had heard it do that.

Then last night it was neg 2 degree's (-15ish windchill), truck had sit for 10 hours with the grill facing the wind. On startup I heard a loud electrical sound. Not sure if it was the ignition going nuts (my Jacobs ignition on my old 5.0 stang you could hear sometimes throwing out spark when it was having problems starting or keeping the engine running), or something else. It was quite loud on the outside, and lasted about 3-4 seconds.

Other then that my truck has had no cold weather issues, other then trying to get traction in the snow that is...good thing we have only had had two snows big enough to cover the ground/roads.

I could imagine that most chips are burnt to be slightly, if not significantly more rich then they have to be to keep things safe. Combine that with the extra cooling of everything (air charge, HD radiator, trans cooler) and it might take a long time to warm up the engine. But remember you can always cut some cardboard, or something else to cover part of the radiator. That should help warm the engine faster while moving at least, I had to do that with my 5.0 because it would never warm up if the temperature was below ~30 or so.

 

My truck is my daily driver. Mods are 6# pulley, Diablo chip and Denso IT 22 plugs. It is always parked indoors but this cold weather will always cause little gremlins to pop up. A high pitch squeel here and there, clunks, bangs etc.

I am very surprised how well the L does in the snow. With the 16" steel wheels and BFG Snow tires it is great in the snow. You just have to remeber to never go over 1/4 throttle.. even when the roads are dry.

I went as far as to take my chip out so I am running the oulley and plugs with no chip. This way I will never be tempted to go over 1/2 throttle no matter what