I have a 97 12v.. mostly stock it has a #10 fuel plate and maybe some other pump work I honestly don't know since I haven't had time to dig into yet and find out. But it absolutely hates cold weather, anything under about 40* without plugging it in will all but kill the batteries before it decides to do something with its life, and after it starts it smokes like no other for about 2 minutes.. is this something I should be concerned with? And is there a way to deal with it?

 

correct me if im wrong but check out the grid heater or block heater may not be working.

 

I've fired up my 24 valve at -7*F without it being plugged in. I would say you definitely have an issue if you can't fire yours up at 35*.

Does it just crank and crank with no results?

 

Yessir, it cranks over quite a bit before anything happens. It starts fine when the truck is warm or in warm weather, actually through the fall I didn't even need to cycle the grid heater and it would fire on the second crank. A local "performance specialist" told me have g the starwheel cranked up to much would cause this.. but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me, then again this is the same guy that didn't know they made a 62mm Phatshaft turbo and had to ask me who the manufacturer was... performance specialist you see...

 

Does it crank fast when you try and start it or are the batteries weak from the get go