Cold Weather Tune

[2500ak]

Still working out everything I want in my custom tune. Wondering if anyone else ever put any thought to this.

What would be some good ideas for making a 2001 truck with a 6.0L LQ4 better acclimate itself to static -50 and -60 degrees Fahrenheit?

The truck sometimes doesn't autostart, even though its keyed off the tach when below -50. It kicks over and falters.


What can be done to make it start more aggressively, warm up more aggressively, and then decrease the amount of fuel used idling when warm as it idles a lot.

[joecar]

Where are you located...? :shock:

[2500ak]

Fairbanks Alaska. Interesting weather, we can see high 80's low 90's in the summer, and -60's in the winter. Not often but it usually sinks below -40's and doesn't come up above that again for several weeks. Also we have 24 hour daylight in the summer which is bitchen' unless you have insomnia. I've literally gone to the shooting range at 1 in the morning its fantastic I'm the only one there and it's broad daylight. Then nearly perpetual darkness during the winter, thankfully the day's are finally getting longer again. Its down to less than 4 hours at the winter solstice, and the sun doesn't even come up above the mountains.

My old roommate once put it eloquently, "Fairbanks is the literally what hell would look like frozen over. He's subsequently moved back to the east coast. I can't imagine why, might have had something to do with his old 80's jeep not having a heater for the two years he lived up here. You should have seen the icicles that formed on the roof of that thing, it was painful to ride in.

Fairbnkas does however have a fantastic University with low tuition and a highly accredited engineering department. Believe me, this would not be my first choice of places to live. Anchorage is very pleasant, that's where I'm from. Doesn't get below 0 for more than a month, its coastal so the ocean regulates the temperature.

The further down you go the more it gets like Washington/Oregon, the higher up you go it gets more artic. Fairbanks is at least isolated from winds, I can imagine with a windchill the temps here could get down to the -100's.

One time I had a 50/50 mix of coolant, it froze up and my truck overheated at -68 below 0.

[joecar]

lol, so Anchorage is quite warm at 0°F... :)

What does motor oil look like at -68°F...?

<sorry for the hijack :doh2:>

[2500ak]

Actually not bad synthetic 0w30 looks about like room temperature 10w or 15w. But my old roommates jeep had a 4.0 i6 that both leaked and burned badly so he had to use the heavy stuff.

When we were still at the dorms right after he'd got it he left the bottle of cheap wal-mart brand 15w40 outside in the back of it. He had to use a spoon to get it out, didn't work very well, ended up taking it inside to warm it up.

[2500ak]

Some other amusing anecdotes

My friend Karlin had to be on base by morning, nothing could persuade his frozen truck to start not even pulling it in my truck (it was a 5-speed), so we took a tin put some briquettes in it and lit a fire under the engine which did manage to warm it up and get it going again.

Another one of my old roommates had a Lincoln Navigator that had an alternator go bad so we charged up the old battery (which wasn't bad), and the new one (which he bought after I explicitly told him not to just throw money at it), in parallel with the old battery in the cab and the new one under the hood and the cables going out the hood and in through the drivers window. He drove like that (window down) all the way across town at about -45F and it stalled on his way into the parking lot at the shop.


I helped a friend install a shift kit in his dodge durango about a week ago, outside in Palmer it was about 20 above, and the truck was just in the woods surrounding his house, supported by old logs. It was a terrible idea, but I knew he'd of been miserable if he'd broken his truck before having to go back up.

First time I ever got frostbite I was helping another friend change a battery and I forgot I had a metal wrench in my had, by the time I realized it, my palm was literally frozen solid. Just like an ice cube.

I've done all kinds of crazy stuff in the cold, changed diff fluid, I do my own oil changes on my Grama's property.

[2500ak]

My idea would work like this

1) engine starts and revs to about 2500 rpm when below -30 via [B4340] Startup friction airflow decay.

2) [B4603] P/N idle speed raised to a 1100 rpm idle below -20 and 1200 below -40
(based on ECT). Then as the ECT reading comes up .

3) [B4605] Heater Warmup RPM to hold the engine at 1000 if the engine overcools.

4) Modify ignition and fuel tables so that it warms up faster and starts more aggressively. Is that possible and how would that be accomplished.

[Sid447]

For your initial crank-start,

(assuming you have EFI-L software). I'd just copy and paste table {B3201} (say from a Corvette table).
Then use both Non Sequential First Fuel Pulse {B3204} and Non Sequential Second Fuel Pulse {B3206}

Your truck only has fuel being injected at table {B3204}
Look around a few tune files and see if you can come up with a better compromise that will help you.
As I think it's a fuel problem more than insufficient air.

(We used to use plug-in block heaters in the Canadian winters. The type that fit into a freeze plug hole and look like a miniture kettle element). :)

[2500ak]

Yeah I'm either going to get EFI or have it tuned by someone who does. I use the headbolt heater when I can but I don't always have access to them and I don't bother with it a lot because it doesn't seem to make a lot of difference.

I've had trucks that had great block heaters, but this one really doesn't. My old 86' dodge could turn the engine block into a giant heating element, this one just keeps it from freezing.

So a longer period of non-sequential pulse is preferable in cold start situations?

[housefull]

Thats not really a bad thing mate. I cant think of a simple way to dampen the data input but remember if your building the WB data into a MAP each populated cell is a sum of all the data collected there and averaged when you use the X option. So in a way that should get you what your after anyway.:gossip: