The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Basic choke question

Are you supposed to use the choke on these engines (235) on first startup of the day in warm weather? I was using it briefly every morning with good results. I found I could shut it off quickly and the engine would run on its own. But I just replaced the points, dist cap, and condenser and now I find it doesn't seem to like the choke. It stumbled with a lot of smoke. I pushed it all the way in and the truck ran fine. It's usually in the high 80s, low 90s here this time of year. I wonder if all it needs is a quick pump of the gas pedal.

let the truck tell you what's needed, no "supposed to" involved - in warm weather you might get by with no choke at all, even cooler mornings, first start shouldn't need more than say 1/4 choke for just the first couple seconds, never full choke - it may keep an idle without any choke, but need a small amount when ya first move out to keep it from bogging until it's up to temp

Bill

If it doesn't need the choke when started from dead cold (12 hours off) idle mixture is too rich.

"need the choke" does not define how far the knob is pulled out, and "dead cold" when the ambient temp is 85-95 is much different than "dead cold" when the temp is 40-50

Bill

I'm with Bill. My '38 rarely needs the choke to start but once started a bit of choke helps keep the stumble monster at bay. Even that usually lasts no more than a minute, two when it's really cold.

I went out and started it today. I had the choke out just a little way, and that seemed to be where the engine was happiest on startup. I had given it too much choke the last time.

If I am starting either my '50 or '40 after sitting over night I always pull the choke out, soon as it fires I push it half way in and within a couple minutes of running it gets pushed in most of the way and after another couple minutes it goes all the way in. This time of year I don't even think about using the choke the rest of the day/evening and things start right up.

Yeah, the only time I use mine is in the morning on first startup. Then it's not necessary for the rest of the day. I haven't had the truck for a winter yet, at least not with a running engine.

I never use the choke on mine, it's a 261. When the mornings get a bit cooler, (it's already down to 50F) I'll need to use it.

Every engine/carb is a little different. You want to do what works best. That said you don't want to use any more choke then nessesary. Excess washes oil off the cyl. walls, polutes the oil & carbons the spark plugs.