Cold Issues

[Mattman2010]

As everyone already knows it has been cold and snowy in a lot of places. I am having issues with my truck in the cold. Ill tell a little background before I get to the issues.

I have a 1980 K10 I bought this truck in July of 2010 (first truck) it had a 250 in it that bad been all torn up and I swapped in a 350 from a 1980 k20. The motor wasnt running great when I got the engine and I went through it replacing the gaskets, oil pump, water put, ect. I rebuilt the qjet (first time) and just put the new stuff in it and put it back the way it came apart. I didnt read anything about rebuilding one. I replaced the spark plugs and wires but did not change out the rotor or cap.

Alright so here are the issues, when it gets below 20 degrees the truck will not turn over, it acts as if the battery is dead, but if it gets warmer than 20 degrees the truck will fire right up. Its like when it is cold it its pulling a lot more amps and cant turn over, it starts to crank and then just quits.

If I boost the battery and get it started I have trouble keeping the truck running. I have a manual choke on it and I can choke it for about the first 5 mins and then it starts to drop down in rpm and I have to turn the choke off or it will die. I cant put a small amount of choke on it either or it will die. Once it starts to die it has a hard time to keep idleing at around 500 rpm, It keeps dropping below 500 and you have to give it throttle. As long as you are driving it and giving it throttle it will run. I know adding choke should fix this but just any choke seems to flood it a little to much and it starts to drop in rpm and will die if you don't turn it off and give it some throttle.

So does my battery sound like it is not a good one? (It is one from walmart, just wanted to get something cheap and it worked till it started getting cold) or is something pulling to many amps when it is getting cold outside?

What about getting my truck to run when its cold? Did I mess something up when I rebuilt it, or do you just think it needs properly tuned? (I dont know how to tune a Qjet)

Thanks, Matt