OT '99 P'stoke cold idle

[L.C.Gray]

99 F350 PS, 100k miles. When its below 30 degrees and colder, it still starts fine but has a very erratic idle. On start up it lopes badly, cycling the throttle rapidly and hard enough to rock the truck from side to side for maybe 20 seconds or so.

The only thing similar I've seen is engines with mechanical pumps "hunting" when about to run dry on fuel.

Is this normal behavior for a PS?

 

[Anonymous-0]

yea this is normal every powerstroke that i have owned or used in cold weather does the same thing. and the one i have now is VERY cold blooded and will not start if it is not plugged in and it is below about 25.

 

[rrlund]

That made me feel REAL good. It was 8 above here this morinig and my 85 6.9 started right up since I put new glow plugs in.

 

[John M]

We have 6 at work, I have one here. None of them do it, oh wait, I take that back. One DID it until the glowplug realy was changed. Just how long to you leave the switch in ON position before you try to start it?

 

[T_Bone]

Hi LC,

I reset my puter(disconect both battery's overnight) at every 5k mile oil change resolves many glitch problems, engine miss, low fuel mileage, etc;. This resets the PCM to the factory defaults and clears ALL codes except one, disconnected battery.

If the engine truley has a problem, it will quickly set new codes and the problem will return/continue.

My 02 PSD 27k mile life time fuel mileage is ***15.2mpg*** that includes pulling 16kGCW to 31kGCW for 9k miles. Not to shabby for a 8000lb, 1ton, DRW, 4wd, pick-up

T_Bone

 

[Jason1(Pa.)]

Sounds like a glow plug problem. I know on the two Powerstrokes I had if I would go to start in very cold temps it would do that if I didn't run the glow plugs twice. It didn't do it as bad as your saying but you could notice it. Try running the glow plug cycle twice to see if that is any better. Its just too cold and your combustion chambers ain't warm enough to burn the fuel untill it gets going a litttle.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Try not trying to start until you hear the fuel pump click to a stop. On mine it usually is about ten seconds after the glow light goes off. It has helped on mine.