Moving form Oregon to Wisconsin has opened my eyes. dam its cold.
so i have been noticing alot of P181 codes and many are cold front owners.
My question or thought is all you guys who have cold in the blood, what issues have you had or seen. I know gelling and hadr starts. i want real issues that we dont see everyday.
Eric maybe you can key in. WI Huck Key in. When I was at dmax training the instructor said in MI they had slues of issues. just a thought. I get tired of the same talk IE injectors....Patrick

I just had a P0181 come up a couple of weeks back...took it to the dealer and he blamed it on my cold front (was about 20-30°F that week). To add insult to injury, he then charged me $90 to clear it!

Patrick,

I'a a tech at a GM dealer in Toronto, the only real reoccuring issue I have seen is accumulated water in the fuel tank actually freezing & causing a no start - particularily overnight. Push it in the shop & start diagnosis & 1/2 to 1 hour it starts up... WTF. The realization of what was happening was the extremely high vacuum on the fuel feed fitting gauge, well over 25 " & the primer was sucked all the way down, beat on the bottom of the tank next time & presto, no more vacuum & primer now rises, crank truck & it starts. You know the rest of the story, clean entire fuel system, recommend appropriate conditioner, all that stuff.

Todd.

Run Delvac 5w40 syn, good synthetics everywhere else, an Amsoil AMS preluber [does smooth out those cold weather start ups], functional fuel filter heaters, frequent fuel filter changes, your own 500 gal fuel tank at work with a well regarded high quality fuel and good tank breather on it. A 45 gal Transfer flow tank on Max helps to generally allow you to fill with your own fuel, which is a nice plus. Use the top half of factory supplied grill cover [during Dec-March period or so]. Ahhh...yep, run a good additive always. You should be good to go for anything south of International Falls, at anytime. Other guys on this forum know more about this than I do and Eric is one of them. Luck

.PS dont forget the Optima red tops

Todd, did you say you saw 25" of vacuum on the inlet side of the pumps? A vacuum pump will only pull 26" here at our altitude of 4350'. Later! Frank

I've never had a cold weather issue to date patrick, I live here in MN. and freqintly travel in weather colder then twenty below. I always keep my tank topped off and use stanedyne. BigRedD/A.

Nothing here, yet. Run Standyne Performance Formula. Can't plug truck in, at night.

What is the code for?

I had thought the P0181 code, (Fuel temp and engine coolant temp > 18*F at start-up), was an issue on 01/02 models when using the engine block heater?
Wasn't there a reflash for this?

My recipe for problem-free winters:
-Buy quality fuel whenever possible, (you get what you pay for)
-Always use a Emulsifing Fuel Conditioner so water never accumulates anywhere in system, (I don't believe what GM says)
-Change Fuel Filter at reccomended intervals
-Keep fuel tank topped off
-5W40 Synthetic Oil
-Good Batteries, (Optima Red Tops preferred).

Four winters, down to -15*F in NE WI. with no problems, (I don't think it was just luck).

Frank,

I'm pretty sure it was 25":eek:, have never seen one that high before or since, it was the shop gauge used, but it zeroed out at +/- .5". The system was primed but plugged at the fuel pickup end & we had good cranking speed, that LP pump can really suck when it has to:D, we are much closer to sea level than you I believe...go figure. Like I mentioned also, the primer was pulled down hard as well.

Todd.

The only winter condition I have had with my MAX was trans sump temp issue. IT was only about -17 out and I had already driven about 7 miles then turned into the wind, about 15-20 mph wind. The truck started shifting down and would not go above 25 mph or out of 2nd gear. IT did this 3 times that day. I just turned it off and restarted after a few minutes. SES light was on but dissapeared after sitting for a while. This really had me worried when I had the wife and a 6 month old with me. Initially I thought it was gelling but I was running a healthy dose of addative. Haven't had an issue yet but winter isn't over yet and they are predicting the coldest temps yet to come.

As previously discussed, just to be on the 'safe side', it is a good insurance policy to run some sort of diesel fuel winter additization... Primrose 409, as example, will lower the pour point of #2 30 =/- degrees, along with water minimization, cetane boost, rust preventive and detergency... A relatively low treat rate provides a good comfort level.. There are many other good winter diesel fuel additives on the market.
George Morrison