Hey, I've been having problems starting the car in the cold weather. While this is a pretty obvious problem, its been getting worse and worse. A friend came over and brought a can of ether, and it fired right up, no hassle. What he suggested was that my temperature sensor could be broken/messed up. Heres what he said:
- On a cold day the engine needs more fuel to start, the only way that the computer can tell if it needs more fuel because of the cold is through the temperature sensor. If the temperature sensor isnt sending accurate inputs back to the ECM, then the computer may be assuming the engine is warm, and not providing enough fuel to start. By spraying the ether in all we did was essentially add more fuel, and proved this to be right. After the engine has been running and warmed up, it will fire back up no hassles, which eliminates the possability of a fuel delivry problem (right?).

If you guys could provide any input to this it would be great, also, I dont exactly know where the temperature sensor is located (in a water jacket somewhere)...so a little help finding it would be great.

Thanks a lot


Dave

 

If my memory is any good (and that's always a big "if") an '88 TPI should still have the cold start injector. However, if your's is a standard SC with the TBI V-8, you have no such device.

Cold starting is a function of the comparison between the coolant temperature (CTS) and intake air temperature (MAT) sensors. For cold enrichment to occur on startup, the CTS and MAT nust be below 104°F, and the two sensors must be within 40°F of each other. If the MAT or CTS (or both) is not reporting correctly to the ECM, you will not get the cold start enrichment.

You can inspect the connectiosn at each of the sensors, and test the sensors with an ohmmeter: