03 6.0 Rough Start and miss

[one5oh2nv]

Hey guys I have a 03 f350 that has been giving me some issues the last couple months. especially this last few weeks now that its a little cooler out. History that i know of! I bought the truck in July with 69k on the ticker and now it has 73k. The problems have started since the overnight temps have gone down into the 40's and cooler.
When I start it for the first time everyday she runs very rough and smokes for the first 20-30 seconds. It continues to run rough for about 5-10 minutes. I have done 2 oil changes on it since I have owned it. First one was motorcraft oil 15-40 with 2 shots of rev-x no help, second oil change I did t-6 5-40 with 8oz of archoil 9000 (supposed to be the same or better than rev-x) also no improvement!
I checked the ficm one time after a 35* night and voltage never dropped below 47 on key up, crank, or running. I will test again soon! Im not sure where to start or what to look at!

Any help is appreciated! I do have a couple videos I can upload so you can see and hear what shes doing!

[justa03]

Sounds like a FICM issue or the FICM could be updated to help take care of the cold start and cold running. Check your FICM voltage again just to make sure. But it is known some power is lost after this and some say it contributes to the FICMs going bad but I did update my 03 and starts way nicer when cold out now due to the inductive heating. Look into PHP for FICM programming or even contact them, they are quite knowledable on this.

[one5oh2nv]

I did see a sticker on the radiator support that says that the ecm was updated but that was in 3/06.

[justa03]

Who knows if they updated the FICM but more then likely they did but I do believe the updates were after that date. Generally rough running cold like that comes down to a FICM issue or stiction.

[one5oh2nv]

This was this morning after It had been running for about 10 seconds!

[kurtisp]

sounds like you have the same issue im having....does it smoke at all when first starting her up?...miss and shake until it gets warmed up?...shift firmer than normal til it warms up?.....ill try and get a video of what my cold start sounds like

[one5oh2nv]

Yes that exactly describes what my truck is doing! Hopefully I can get it figured out cause it's bugging me and almost making me regret buying the truck. Almost ready to just go trade it in for a different one

[justa03]

Hard to tell but do you have a cyl dropping out? Again check the FICM voltage again, that and it might not hurt to go check and see if the FICM is at the latest programming. Mine ran rough too until i updated then FICM when cold. Almost sounds like you have a cyl dropping out though. If you could run a power balance on it cold like that and maybe have an inj acting up cold.

[one5oh2nv]

Yes it does seem as there is one dropping out. I'll have to wait till my next day offs to check the ficm again.

[one5oh2nv]

anyone have any other ideas or things i should check?