Ok I know a buncha guys that have these supped up diesel trucks and most of them do a detune in the winter because its cold here in va and they say the cold dry air is too much for their tunes and that you could blow your motor?

so here I am the proud owner of a 08 cobalt with 8K miles on it and wanting to know if I need to wait till spring to throw a tune on it?

 

No.

 

"No" as in it wont hurt it? or like no don't do it?

 

No, get it tuned now and have fun with it

 

ya, these cars love cold, dense air.

 

It doesnt get cold in VA....comeon now..

 

ok so not as cold as New Hampshire but it feels cold to us lol

 

Your question was do I need to wait til spring, I wrote no.

 

it doesnt matter. your ecm will be able to compensate. it monitors atmospheric pressure, intake air temp, and boost pressure so it will be able to adjust fuel and timing based on the outside air temp change. when hotter outside temp the ecm will retard the timing. when colder outside temp the ecm will advance the timing.

this is assuming you have a map sensor that can read boost and the engine is tuned for it.

if you boosted an n/a vehicle and you are using the stock 1 bar map then this can be dangerous as the ecm doesnt know your boosting and in cold weather the ecm will advance the timing. advancing timing under boost can be catastrophic.

here in florida it doesnt get cold for very long so i quite enjoy the little time i have with my boosted 2.2 in colder weather. by the time the cold is gone, i need new tires

 

Well it's a 08 ss so in other words it's boosted stock and I'll be looking to tune it soon :P

 

the reason why they say that dense cold air isn't always good for diesels is 1. cold air is yes denser making diesels lean out because they run off of injector pumps and particulate sensors also leading to 2. diesel as it gets colder starts to gel making it rough on diesel injector pumps and injectors meaning less fuel meaning KABOOM lol but if they were some of the few who didn't mind running black diesel or running anti-gel in their diesels they would know that black diesel- engine oil/power steering fluid filtered out does not freeze. but then there are some vehicles who can not run black diesel or even a diesel to oil mixture due to particulate lasers. Just to add a lil more into why its bad to run big boost in a diesel in the winter

<= army diesel vehicle/generator mechanic

 

thanks for the info man i thought it may have been something to due with the rating of the fuel but you make total sense about this lol

now im running a zzp canned tune and dying to get the zzp head and turbo kit they offer im guessing id be pushing upper 400hp+

 

been in Va for 8yrs only one time when it was in the negative
its mostly 60s =p

 

not in the winter my friend...now dont get me wrong it can be a warm day sometimes but once november kicks in good it stays about 35 40 at the most till mid january

 

i dunno how cold it gets where you guys live in the US but here in Northern Alberta we dont even switch over to winter diesel or but conditioner in are tanks until past -15C(5F) so i dunno why you guys are worried lol