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94 4.0. Hard starts under 40F.

burntkat

NAXJA Member #1145
Location
Charleston, SC
Title says most of it-

Wife's 94 has a hard time starting under 40 degrees F. It won't catch, spins over with authority, but it just sputters, backfires, and coughs till it gets a little heat in the engine.

My fix for now, is the following:

-Turn the switch to run. Wait 10 seconds. (priming the pump and rail)

-Turn switch off. Repeat 2 times.

-Crank. Engine coughs, wants to backfire, will try to run properly if I give it fuel (but again, will backfire). Let it do that for 5 seconds or so, then take my foot off the accelerator. Let it die.

-Repeat the above. Usually twice does the trick, and once I get it to where it will run well at 2000 RPM, if I let off the gas it will idle fine, though a bit high.

I've replaced the fuel pump assembly, as I thought maybe it was an issue with fuel pressure. No difference.

Truck starts and runs perfectly well at anything north of 40 degrees, or if the engine is warm in extremely cold weather (30 degrees, for us, is extremely cold).

I am wondering if maybe it's a fuel injector issue. The injectors have never been cleaned. I do have a set of new 4-hole upgrade injectors I need to swap in.
 
The IAC (Intake Air Controller) on the throttle body could be stuck or just lazy.
Throttle body air passage could be blocked with carbon.
Remove, clean and replace.

There are test procedures for the IAC but I have done it.
 
Thanks, gents. I will look into the above!
 
Got the parts on the way from Amazon (best quality/price I could find) and will install Wednesday evening on arrival. We have a cold snap coming the latter part of the week so I will see what happens then.
Meanwhile, I've just cleaned the TB, added Seafoam to the tank, as well as fogged down the intake with a can of it as well.
 
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