The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Proper starting procedure?

Hey all,

I was reading another topic, and a thought came to mind. How do you all start your trucks from a cold start? Modern fuel injected vehicles have dumbed me down to the point that I have forgotten how to properly start a carbureted engine. Before I restored my 41, I never really had any experience starting carbureted engines without fast idle cams. I get mine to start okay, but just wanted some more intel...never hurts to learn.

BTW, I am talking about old school six cylinder trucks with manual choke and throttle controls.

Thanks and I look forward to the discussion.

Paul

Hey!

Thank you for asking that!

I dont often drive my truck when its cold, but now that i've repaired my manual choke i started it like this:
Full choke -> start engine -> half choke -> let the engine warm up -> no choke -> start driving!

I wonder if that's the best way to do it? Im just 23 years old so i dont have that much experience with carburated engines and manual chokes!

pull the choke out and start. pretty basic. Unless it is a hot summer day. then just start. At least that is how my truck has started for the last 30 years. I don't really know what you would use the throttle knob for now days, it may have had value in the past as a cruise control for slowly driving through a field bucking bales or something.

This is how I was taught and it has worked for many decades.
Pump the gas twice, Choke almost full out, start the engine, choke to half. pull the throttle to hold about 8-900 RPM. Get out and clear all the ice and snow off the windows.
Push the throttle in and the choke to 1/4 and drive, when the temp gauge starts to move, choke in.

What if I don't have a throttle knob?? I've often wondered how those were hooked up. My truck was missing the throttle knob. I always held down the gas pedal a little when starting.
Seems strange to hear someone asking about starting a carb equipped engine, but then I guess the younger folk were never privy to this.....

John

When temps are above 32F, 1 pump of the gas pedal, full choke, insert my "fast idle" clip on the hand throttle, start, slowly open choke to full open, let fast idle for approx 20 secs or so, remove clip & go.

Temps below 32F requires 2 pumps of the pedal and if it doesn't start, repeat sequence.

The Rochester B carb that came on my 49 216 has a step cam that kicks the throttle open a hair to give a faster idle when the choke is full to partially closed. I prefer my home made fast idle clip that gives a faster cold engine idle and also allows me to open the choke all the way after starting.
It'll stumble alittle when I 1st pull out after I open the choke and remove the fast idle clip but smoothes out pretty quickly afterwards.

I've always done exactly as described by Jim Sears untill I rebuilt the Rochester B. Now I Never pump the gas first, even if it's been setting for two days and it's -10. I pull the choke knob out all the way, hit the starter and it starts right away. I emmediately push the choke knob almost all the way in and it's good to go. I think the proper starting procedure is what ever works best for the engine. You want to let the engine start, you don't want to force it.

I just read in the original owners manual the other day, (as I sat on the porcelain throne, contemplating my kingdom's inventory), the instructions say just what I've read in a few posts here. A) Pull the choke out fully B) start the puppy C) push choke back in about half way (??- short memory as to verbatim orders) D)let it warm up E) push throttle all the way back in F)Go down the road.
The first month I had the beast, it was a pretty comical scene when I started it. If it didn't start up right off the bat, I'd pull the choke and throttle BOTH all the way out, just to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Then when the engine hit, I was clamoring to get the throttle back in before anybody within hearing distance saw/heard me with full throttle revving up the decibels! Talk about red in the face! But since I read the owners manual (thank you, Frank, for including that in the sale!), I've not embarrassed myself once. Not even in this severe cold. Speaking of cold weather, we're under a winter storm warning here in S.E Missouri till 6pm Monday. One more reason I'm glad to be retired. When they used to say, "Hey, Butch! Get up there and shovel the snow off the iron so we can work today!" My response was usually, "Ok! I'll be back first thing tomorrow to get that done!" The idea of slipping on slick steel beams at 20' or over always seemed like a real good way to miss a month of work- or not be alive to work anymore, at all.

I pull the choke cable out all the way.
I depress the gas pedal once so the accelerator pump squirts some fuel.
I start the engine and slowly push the choke in until it seems happy (smooth idle, lower RPMs). The colder it is, the less I can get away with pushing the choke cable back in.
I allow the engine to idle until I can push the choke knob all the way in without the engine stalling.
I then pull out the throttle knob out a bit to increase the RPMs to speed up the warm up of the engine.
My ultimate goal is to push the choke knob all the way back in as soon as possible to prevent dumping liquid fuel (which doesn't burn) into the cylinders, diluting the oil.
Carl

In addition to standard starting procedure, if my truck has not been started in several weeks, I sometimes leave the key in the off position and use the foot starter to turn the engine over several times just to bring lubricant to the top and fuel to the carb. I do not like the idea of firing up an antique engine full choke to high rpm.
RdsLessTaken/Don

http://s1291.photobucket.com/user/RdLessTaken/library/

I have Tom Langdon's setup with the dual 2bbl's Carter Webers. They have an automatic choke. My question is do you still need to pull the throttle cable out a little till it warms up in a cold climate? I have not started it up yet. I am just curious.

I needed very little throttle to get the Langdon dual C-W carb engine started. I throttled with the foot pedal. As soon as the engine started, there was no need for throttle. I let the engine warm up for a few minutes and then drove off.

Thanks for your input. What I was fishing for is if you all pump the accelerator pedal or not. The original owners manual (link from Tim) instructions do not say anything about the gas pedal. On carbureted vehicles I have owned, they were all 1960-70's vintage so they all had fast idle cams that required a gas pedal pump to set on the fast idle portion of the cam. The W-1 has no such cam and I was wondering if pumping was nesesary or even desirable. I was also interested to see if you all had different starting procedures for varing cold start temperatures (as in full choke when 30F, but 3/4 when 45F etc). I recall the topic of "flooding the engine" used to come up. There seems to be much more user input to cold start these 1940-50's engines,something that is no longer significant with new vehicles.


John, just had another birthday last week and was not feeling particularly "young", your comment really made my day.

Thanks again,

Paul

Mine starts quite easily after a day or two with just one light depress on the gas pedal. Longer not running than that though it can be a bear to get gas to the cylinders and I have been doing a lot of pedal pumping. Thanks Tim for the great manual reference, it made me remember ---- I do have a choke ---used it just a bit this morning and voila, started right up. Like it was supposed to. How did I forget about the choke for so long??? let me guess. Guess I can't remember --- but thanks again for this thread and for the quick lesson (learned long ago but forgotten) and reminder.

Most automatic chokes have an idle step cam that holds the throttle open a bit until the choke opens.
You do have to step on the gas once before you start so it can set.