Interesting observation

[20THOR]

As of late I have been plugging in the block heater overnight to keep the engine warm, because it seemed to start easier and lets face it nobody wants to be cold in the morning driving to work. Well here is the observation part last night I left it un-plugged to see how the truck would react, today I go out to start the truck, I wait for the light to go out and turn the key to start and within 5sec the truck is running, now previously with the block heater plugged in it would take 15-20sec to start.

Now onto the interesting part, I am an Navy instructor and I teach Hydraulics, that being said I understand fluid principles and how they work, my only theory for why the truck did what it did goes like this cold oil is thick oil and thick oil has a greater resistance to flow thereby increasing pressure soooo since 6l's require 500psi oil press to start and with cold thick oil I got the required pressure quicker this morning. Nothing wrong here just something weird that I noticed.

btw truck is a 2004 with 146k miles COMPLETELY stock

[tonto]

I've noticed that on mine too sometimes on cold starts it would barely crank and just roll over. I've also noticed on two seperate nights around 30 degrees F, not plugged in, I had a 20 degree temp difference between the two nights. Odd?

[20THOR]

same things I have noticed also, wanted to see other peoples experiences/opinions

[ptsk06tank]

I used to have the same problem when I was on vacation in the Tenn. mountains. At temperatures below 35*. The truck would take forever to start. Even to the point of hooking up a charger to get a boost. Once the truck started it would run great. Took it to the dealer. They had to replace the FICM. It's been running great ever since.

[TooMuch03]

Are you using 15w40 or 5w40 oil? That would make a difference in cold starting I would think.
When I don't have mine plugged in, I turn the key to on, then back to off when the wait to start light goes out. I do that twice, then on the the third time, turn it to start and the truck fires right away, even in temps under 20F

[2006PSDSD]

You may have a HPO leak somewhere. Depending on the build date, you may have the STC fitting, which are prone to leaking. Ford has an updated one out to fix the issue. You need to find a way to monitor your ICP, and IPR duty cycle

In 04 they made improvements to the HPOP, and with that came the STC fitting (attaches the HPOP to the HPO system)


For the recod, I have started my truck at temps around 5-10* without having it plugged in. After cycling the GP's twice

[Galaxie]

the 15-20 second crank is an exaggeration correct? Even 5 senconds would be SUPER unacceptable. 1 Mississippi 2 Mississippi 3 Mississippi 4 Mississippi 5 Mississippi

5 would be bad. 20 would be a fried starter and a major problem!!!

[tonto]

At what temp is everyone plugging in at? I get worried when it gets below 32!

[Galaxie]

Originally Posted by tonto

At what temp is everyone plugging in at? I get worried when it gets below 32!

20s. They will start well into single digits with no issues if they are healty. But its nice to have 100* coolant and warmed up oil...

It was 30 degrees the other night, didnt need to plug in at all but did because I was staying at a place with free power...

[20THOR]

as for build date 8/03, time is definitely not exact just given to show relative time, ficm was repaired around the beginning of sept. temp when i observed this was roughly 40, while i don't think i CURRENTLY have an issue, just taking notice of the truck and keeping record so that i HOPEFULLY can catch things early, all of the above are already things i'm looking out for and oil is 15w40 about two months ago