Hey Everyone,

This is my first winter with my '94 944T and we just had our first real cold snap. Temperatures dipped down to -25 F (-32 C) at times and with the wind chill factored in temps were getting down around -40F/C overnight. Somewhat cold.

My trusty old '81 240 GL (B23E, K-Jet) almost always starts and runs at those temperatures even if I don't plug the block heater in overnight. The 940, however, hasn't started at all since it's gotten really cold. I brought the car up from the US this summer (I live in Canada) so it doesn't have a block heater installed in it YET (it will soon !) and it was parked outside. I would crank and crank the starter but the engine barely fired. Once in a while it would cough once or twice while I was cranking but that was it. The battery was strong and cranking the engine at a decent speed so I know that wasn't the problem. It seemed to me like it was a fuel problem (i.e. not getting enough). There's a good chance the fuel line was frozen as the tank level was quite low when the cold weather hit and I didn't think to throw some methanol in the tank until after it got cold and I couldn't get it started. The car came from an area where it's fairly damp in the winter so I suppose there could've been some water at the bottom of the the tank from before I bought the car.

It's actually a little premature for me to be talking about the problem in the past tense. I still haven't gotten it started but it's supposed to warm up quite a bit overnight so I'm expecting I'll get the thing to fire up tomorrow morning. I've poured some methanol into the tank so I'm hoping that'll take care of any water that might be in there and prevent the gas line from freezing up the next time we get a cold snap.

I don't know the exact cause of the problem but for now I'm assuming it's just a frozen gas line and nothing more. The car was running and starting fine before when the temperatures were dipping down as low as a few degrees below 0 F (-18 to -20C range). But since this is my first winter with this 940 I'd like to know how good this LH 2.4 FI system is reputed to be in extremely cold temperatures. The K-Jet system on my old 240 works great in the deep freeze but how about this LH 2.4 system ? What have other people found ? Good ? No Good ? Marginal ? Is this car going to be a basket case every time it gets good and cold around here or will it be as trusty and reliable in the cold as my old 240 ? Winters get pretty cold in Sweden so I can't see Volvo ever building a car
that won't start very reliably in cold temperatures but I guess I shouldn't make any broad sweeping assumptions like that. So, what's the scoop on this LH 2.4 when it starts getting in the -25 F (-32 C) range ?

Thanks,

Roger