air choke or electric choke quadrajet

[GSP7]

I have the air choke

Anyone know which works better electric or air?

My air choke has never worked good. Its back and forth adjusting it. It either wont go off or wont go on unless its almost freezing weather

I was going to get a manual choke kit

[cadillac_al]

I never had a problem with hot air chokes. It sounds like yours is sticking. I would lube it up good and make sure it works smooth.

[GSP7]

Originally Posted by cadillac_al

I never had a problem with hot air chokes. It sounds like yours is sticking. I would lube it up good and make sure it works smooth.

No Not Sticking............ cold Maine vs hot S/W desert

[geezer#99]

Check the vacuum passage inside isn’t plugged off.
It needs to be open to draw air across the coil.

[geezer#99]

Sometimes the tubing gets holes in it. Especially in the heat well. I’ve used air to blow thru the line. Easy to hear any leaks.

[cadillac_al]

Oh yeah, sometimes those tubes do clog up. I was just looking at a hot air choke intake and carb off my old truck yesterday and thinking about putting it on my current truck. I seem to remember it always worked perfectly. I may have had to give them a slight adjustment in spring and fall when the temp range changed.

My experience with electric chokes is so so. They seem to get confused if you start the vehicles for 1 or 2 minutes and have to shut it off. The elec choke thinks it is already warmed up when it isn't.

[truckin 79]

I just switched to a electric choke I got from ebay and was a simple swap. I switched from stock manifold to Edelbrock performer so no hot air choke set up is present on the performer intake. It was easy to run a 12v wire from fuse box to carb with not problem and I used some wire loom to protect wire. The electric choke works great but a well functioned hot air choke would work just as well. I used to hot air choke on my truck for the past 2 years in CO winter start ups with no problems.

[Wgesnerjr]

Just some thoughts:
The idea is that the electric choke heats up when it gets 12v. There is coil spring in the housing that changes shape as it heats up and moves the choke from closed to open. So there is a certain length of time that it takes for this happen and by the end, the engine should up to temp and no further choke needed.

However from the factory, the electric choke was wired from an ignition circuit through an oil pressure switch to the electric choke.

Why an oil pressure switch? The switch closes when there is oil pressure (engine is running) and lets the current through to the choke.

Having the switch, prevents the choke to heat in case the driver turns the key on but does not start the engine. In this situation the choke would heat up and open well before the engine is started or up to temp thereby making it hard to eventually start or run the engine.

So the switch would ONLY let the choke heat up when the engine is running.

If you plan on running an electric choke without the switch, you have to always remember to turn key and start engine. Don't let the key sit in the ON position without the engine running.