My old 97 would start at 30 below not plugged in. Just cycle the heater twice and she would roll over twice and fire right up. The 99 I used to have would do the same. This 02 I have now, well thats a whole other story.

 

my 02 i have never had a problem with in the cold. rough idle for maybe 30sec and then it runs like a champ. id hate to have an older powerstroke. now theres one truck that doesnt like to start cold. especially if its not plugged in.

 

I used to have 6.9 and that thing was horrible to start, especially when the glow plugs went bad. You would just sit there and crank all day

 

I can second that. Except my glow plugs are good, just the batteries aren't so I have to hope they have enough juice to start it the first try or I'm going to get the van, jumper cables, and a can of crack. After I get those, it starts. I just need to buy batteries.

 

my 6.9 will start after sitting for 2-3 weeks every time. no matter how cold. 10 seconds on the glowplugs and fires right up. proper timing and good fuel system does magic....

now my dmax doesnt even need the glow plugs and has never been pluged in.


the work truck..... thats a DIFFERENT story. 2000 f550. hates life below 40 degrees. even if plugged in, still needs to sit and idle for 15 mins before i can even think of driving it.

 

it's -6°c here now, just burnt my starter while cold starting (i think timing on my pump is way retarded) but....

for the last two days i've had to make it slide down a hill (yes i park it in a hill) and drop the hammer in 2nd gear and it will fire right up (with LOADS of black smoke though hehehe)

 

I prefer to use my block heater and keep my starter and engine happy I can say I've drove a bunch of different powerstrokes and most of them didn't care much for cold starts Thank god it's not that cold here yet

 

Where i work we have 5 P/S,s 2- 6.0,s and 3- 6.4,s and my cousin is a mech for a local poll barn company and thank GOD they have 15 P/S,s...... if they hade Dodge cummins trucks he would be out of a job, by the way 4 out of 5 of ours are junk, we probly could have got a lemon law on the first 6.0, in the shop 14 times in the first 39,000 miles, and the poll barn company....lets just say 3 or 4 are at the dealer for warrinty work at the same time all the time...The only reason businesses by fords are because they are cheaper, i know the only reason we buy them is because our corprate office makes us because they did not take a government buy out. I will agree every once in a while someone will get a good one.

 

my 6.5 loves to be plugged in same with my bros 6.2 (basicly my second truck) one thing that really helps is haws fuel additive...if i dont have an additive in the tank or have an extention cord the 6.5 still cranks first try but runs REALLY ruff with LOTS of smoke and the 6.2 takes forever to crank and will smoke all morning cause the PO took the thermostat out

 

Makes me glad to have 24V I guess. I've plugged my 99 in maybe a dozen times since I drove it off the dealer lot all those years ago. Parked in the middle of open fields all night and never had to crank it more then a few times before it's alive with nothin but winter blend fuel. I have had the fuel gel up on me twice and had to push it in the barn and turn the heater at it.

Now my old early 70's tractor with the mechanical Bosch injector pump starts like that.