Rich,
I had a carbureted truck and have a fuel injected GEO now, that start best
in cold weather with the following ritual:
Set choke (truck only); crank engine just a couple turns; crank again causes
instant start at a good high idle.
Just cranking right from the start takes maybe 5-7 seconds to start and then
both vehicles kind of stumbled for a moment until they picked up high idle.
Ordinarily not a real concern, but in marginal conditions (10 below after
sitting outside for 8 hours at work) the method is comforting.
Not how the manuals say to do it. Any other procedure in cold weather was
asking for flooding or a stall right after the engine began to run.
I bet there are lots of starting routines out there.
Think I'm gonna go check my battery. It's about 5 degrees here in Madison, WI
-- Jack
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At 08:25 AM 12/31/98 -0600, you wrote:
>So long as we're on the subject of cold weather starting:
>
>It's -1 F with a windchill of -8 F in Southwest Iowa at this time (0800).
> I just went out and started Maggie the way I always start a vehicle in
>cold weather (anything below 32 F):
>
>Five seconds of cranking.
>Stopped.
>Five seconds more.
>Stopped.
>Pulled the choke on and tapped the pedal twice.
>Cranked again and she fired immediately.
>
>This is on an engine that hasn't seen maintenance in who knows how long
>before I scraped the corrosion of the points, cleaned and gapped the
>plugs, and cleaned the distributor terminals. It is decidedly *not* in
>the best of tune.
>
>If the car starts anywhere during these steps, so much the better. Some
>times it takes a few more periods of cranking. I limit the time to five
>seconds to preserve the battery. I also think it helps put some oil
>through the system.
>
>Molly (who has a single ZS as opposed to the twin SUs of Maggie) has
>flooded when being started, or at least given a reasonable imitation of
>it. I always thought it was because the vacuum generated by the cranking
>engine pulled in too much fuel, or the engine (having begun to start --
>you know, the hesitation when it's just teasing you...) did the same
>(particularly when the pedal was being pumped). I will defer to the
>wisdom of the list as the necessity of pumping the pedal (cheerfully
>ignoring it and continuing on my merry way because I view my two taps of
>the pedal as a good luck ritual).
>
>My remedy for cold weather starting is to keep the car tuned up (as you
>should anyway), and start it regularly (short drives help both the car
>and driver immensely). Seems to help keep everything lubricated and
>moving, the carbs full of fuel (I know, the electric fuel pump does
>that....), as well as keeping the battery topped off.
>
>Rich
>Council Bluffs, Iowa
>
>'74.5 RB MGB "Miss Maggie"
>'78 Chevy Half-Ton "Waltzin' Matilda" (LBC Support Vehicle)
>'79 Midget "Miss Molly"
>
>richard.arnold@juno.com or rdarnold@neonramp.com
>
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