Thanks for the response. No, I never bothered doing the fresh air only inlet block off of the "pre-heated air" intake. I figured the cars pretty old, so if both parts haven't failed yet they are due anyway and didn't want to mess with the airbox.

If the airbox temperature rod was bad, however, I believe it dies in the "warmed air" mode? Hence the common problem of bad temp. rod killing AMMs, but if that were the case wouldn't I see my problem when the car is warm and not when it's cold? o I would expect the opposite of what I'm seeing if the airbox temp. switch were bad.

It also isn't temp sender since I replaced that not too long ago. Just kind of boggled by what this could be... could excess blow-by with highly worn rings cause it? When cold the rings would have the greatest gap from the cylinder walls, but I wouldn't think I would see such SEVER retardation.

Today was warmer and the car was sitting in the sun and the problem disappeared. It thus seems to SPECIFICALLY be linked to ambient and physical temperatures...

So annoying tracking these intermittent sensor problems.

Thanks,
Rick