Looking for any ideas:

I have a 98 Navigator that I just rebuilt the engine in. It has PI heads with a Lightning supercharger. Last year it started/ran just fine in the zub-zero temps.

Now when it starts it sounds like the lifters have pumped down and won't pump back up. When it is really cold you have to hold the throttle to the floor and turn it over for almost 5 minutes (seriously). When it starts it dumps huge clouds of white smoke and runs very very bad for around 5 minutes - the whole time you have to keep RPM's at 2,000 or higher or it will die. During this time you can smell the extra gas in the exhaust - this could be from too much gas being injected or from it not firing properly.

Does anyone have similar problems with a Lightning? Is anyone driving one in the bitter cold?

It is -20 this morning, I don't want to go start the truck!

Thoughts?

 

I think I figured it out! My IAC (Intake Air Charge Sensor) may be to blame.

One thing I have found is you can disconnect almost any sensor on a Ford Car/Truck and it will still run. For example if you disconnect the ECT (Engine Coolant Temperature sensor) the EEC will just ignore any tables that reference the ECT. It will not compensate for that sensor. You will throw a check engine light but the car will run fine.

I had tried the ECT and it didn't help.

This morning - it wouldn't start, exact same problem. Normally it would take 5 minutes to start and another 5 minutes to run right once it started. I pulled the ACT connector and it started right up!

I will test again later today (still -15 here).

 

I had the same issue on my 1995 Lincoln Mark VIII. I replaced the Cam Position Sensor and the Crank Position Sensor. Both will cause those intermittent no start issues. Haven't had the issue since, but since I replaced them last week, it may not have gotten cold enough to come back again. One other thing, if I kept the lincolns block heater plugged in, it would start every time.