This may sound stupid, but are you using your choke when trying to start it cold? I have to and then let it run a few minutes at 3/4 choke before backing it off.
Correct me if I am wrong. My grandfather told me that when cold on low compression engines if you use choke, it helps engine pull fuel in due to low compression. Once running, you can back it off. I remember watching grandpa put his hand over the carb when starting engines and the taking it off once it fired.
Thoughts?
Chris
It's a good question Chris, and I say yes, the choke is on. I was having trouble starting it recently and it was mentioned to me in a message by a mechanic friend to check the choke. Well yes, the choke was closed, but not fully, so I loosened the screws on the choke element and rotated it so the choke is now fully closed. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I had it running yesterday after some fiddling, and I watched to make certain the choke opened properly as it warmed up, which it did. I also double-checked with my multimeter to make sure the element was getting 12v, and it was. I can't entirely rule out carburetor issues with this hard starting issue, but I can say that when I was driving the truck it didn't show any issues related to carburation or lack of fuel. If anything, it seemed smelly in the cab, gas smell, but it's difficult to say if that's a rich carb, or the fact that the fuel tank in a 51 Chevy is in the cab behind the seat. Or, for that matter, the exhaust smell, which is because the exhaust is currently cut just after the mufflers as I need to take it to a muffler shop to get new pipes installed to the rear of the truck.
