Last night, I was our driving with my wife and had to merge onto an Interstate. The outside temperature was around 50 degrees. My wife is not a fan of performance cars and I usually have to drive like a granny when she is a passenger. So, I only used a little more than 1/2 throttle. Well my 6.1 shifted really hard from 2nd to 3rd gear and pulled like a freight train. My wife thought that I had floored it. Cold air really makes a big difference with these engines! Have any of you guys experienced this? (Note- I noticed that the engine temperature was only at 210 degrees, instead of the usual 215).
Absolutely! Cold air is denser air, colder the better! It is surprising how much difference air temp makes. I run several tunes in my car, one is for hot summer, +90's, one for below 50's and then one for in between because the wild swings in temp makes big differences in my A/F ratios. But yes, they do love cold air!
Oh heck yes. Temperature drops definitely increase performance because cold air contains more oxygen by volume than warmer air. It's most noticeable on BIG modern V8's...and I think the 6.1L Hemi certainly qualifies . Now get some of that action when it's 15* out and it will be like a whole new ride!