(Cold) starting issue- input welcome

[joeydurango]

Originally Posted by geezer#99

He’s not in Canada!
He’s in Victoria!
We kicked Victoria into the ocean years ago!

[AussieinNC]

Hey geezer...where are you ?

Your post listed at 5.36pm EST...and yet you make mention to 0600 ....

Should it not be 1800 if you are east coast Canada ?

I knew it would get some Canadian "friendship" to show thru...Victoria into the sea....hahahaha

[geezer#99]

0600 also known as 6 in the morning.
I live by the sea on the east coast of Vancouver Island about 100 miles north of Coley.
In a little place where we can hear ford’s rusting a mile away on a cool summers eve! It’s deafening at times!
And it does get cool here in the wee hours of the morning. Was only about 45F a couple days ago.
The kicking Victoria thing is just local humour!

[AussieinNC]

Silly me...maybe too much spray paint fumes today...

been painting my trans and bits....

Really jealous of where you live...but Cherryville NC is nice for us after Chicago, New York and Washington DC...

Now our biggest issue is with the odd stray cow or horse on the road...

Enjoy my friend

[geezer#99]

We have them odd strays too!
Usually an escapee from Victoria!

Sorry Coley!
We was havin’ fun on your thread!

[Coley]

lol....what a bunch.....no worries.

I'm hoping to have a few more updates and maybe a few pics for tomorrow.
I resealed up the well plugs today. I didn't tap them out tho'...due to a limited supply of 10-32 plugs.
Regardless, tomorrow I'm hoping to put it back on and give it a try.
In the meantime I was able to try out another carb I have 'in stock'...which was interesting in of itself.

more to come...

Coley

[joeydurango]

Originally Posted by Coley

In the meantime I was able to try out another carb I have 'in stock'...which was interesting in of itself.

What, you can't leave us hanging like that!

[Coley]

Ok how about a few pics?
...ok this was the start point....more or less.
I apologize for the cleanliness issue around the engine.
I haven't had a chance yet this season to get the detailing under the hood up to snuff......note the hazy overspray that is on the motor.

Anywhoo, this was the start point....more pics to come on the progress....see additional posts below.

Coley

[Coley]

Ok....next phase and next group of pics
Removal and some dis-assembly.

Note....one of the great things about this type of 'antiquated' by modern standard, engine/carb system is that removing the carb takes very little time. From the time I got the tools together and popped the hood.....the carb was off and on its way into the shop/work bench within 15 minutes....probably closer to 10 minutes.
This is important to note if you are having extensive carb problems, is to not hesitate to remove it and take it inside where you will have a much better chance of taking a close look at it or in it to find out what is wrong and then to give it the number one upgrade you can ever give a carb......a very thorough cleaning with carb cleaner and compressed air from all sides, all holes, all ports, up, down....get busy and that thing cleaned up and you won't regret it.

This is the removal of the (bottom) throttle body and the start of the review of the well plugs.
Sorry for the quality of some of the pics.....

Remember if you want to remove the bottom throttle body....there are (2) phillips screws on the bottom (facing upwards)...and then you have to as well remove the two, long top screws from top of the carb that connect through from top (back) to bottom (see the pic with the 2 long bolt/screws propped up)...and remember, do not 'guy/pry' stuff....everything should come apart with very little effort.

You can see that the previous well plug coatings (applied when?)....are not in great shape the drivers side plug/epoxy is missing altogether......so drip, drip.

Coley

[vics stuff]

I would have to agree with Steeveedee on the choke set up. They need some adjustment from time to time to keeping them in good working order.
Vic

[geezer#99]

It needs more than adjustment!
It needs a cover on the coil!

[Coley]

Ok....lets keep going

...now the new JB Weld Epoxy (steelstik)

all prepped & cleaned (lacquer thinner, light sanding, blown clean, etc, etc)

After the JB weld was on I had to sand it to shape to ensure the throttle body fit past the epoxy repair work and sat down on it properly and mated to the (original) bottom TB gasket. The gap between these plug wells and the throttle body shapes is a lot tighter than you would think....so don't overdue it on 'fattening' up the sides of the epoxy because you will be sanding/filing that all off to get the throttle body to fit back on the body of the carb.

Note: I will be getting a new gasket kit for the carb over the winter and will install it during the storage period (Nov to spring)......so don't get too uptight about not using all new gaskets yet....lol
The other bit I will be redoing over the winter will be the front well plug right on the forward facing surface at the front right angle fuel line inlet. You can see in some of the pics that the previous (yr?) repair is not going to limit leakage too much longer in my opinion. If/when it does leak it would be out the front of the carb rather than an internal leak.

Coley

[Coley]

...and again, the progress continues.

I should have taken a couple more full, final pics of the repair before putting the throttle body back on because the final well plugs looked a little cleaner than at the stage shown here.

You definitely have to minimize the thickness of the repair or interference with the throttle body will occur during installation and may affect sealing up against the main carburetor throttle body gasket...which will cause a heavy duty vacuum leak, which you will find out about quickly when you start it up, lol.

To the point of re-installing the (original) carb back on.

Coley

[Coley]

So the big question is always....so what the result???....did this fix anything or do anything or make things better or worse or???....lol

Well, here was the result:
-After re-installation of the original carb back onto the engine....(preceded by the removal of the '71 carb)
I shot a few drops of fuel from a squirt bottle into the carb and spun the key.
(note: the fuel bowl of course was fully drained during the repair so helping it restart with a shot of fuel is the way to go...as most of you know).

Ba-da-bing....started right up and settled into a nice idle within 5-10 seconds.

I watched it for about 5-10 minutes to make sure there were no fuel leaks or changes in the running, did a few quick vacuum checks including the rear power brake connection, etc.....then put the air cleaner and its vacuum connection on, closed the hood and headed to the gas station to get some needed fuel.
After that, ..gave it a quick wash and we headed out to the Saanich fair for the day...truck ran great, idled great no problem.

However, the litmus test (for me) is not the daily running...which is/was always good......it is the cold start...and elimination of that 1-2 minute cranking episode without firing stuff mentioned in the first post.

So I went out this morning...gave it 3 quick pumps....and ba-da-bing....fired right up. Okay....so far so good.

I'll check it again, tomorrow to see if it again fires up quickly...and I'll continue to reset up the choke for best cold start running.

....and again, so far so good!

Coley

[Coley]

Separately altogether from the original '72 carb re&re stuff and the final result of that work and investigation (previous posts)....was then the additional installation (see pic below) of one of my back-up carbs to try it out on the now temporaily available 'de-carbed' engine.

...looks like the same carb (no surprise) but you can tell by the white/plastic choke pull of that is a different carb....and this one was originally a '71 / 350-4bbl.

Well it went on easily (no surprise) and quickly but wouldn't run on its own...without me adding fuel from a squirt bottle.
So I pulled off the top air horn and low and behold the tiny little clip that connects the float to the inlet needle was missing/off....and that isn't the first time I've seen that happen.
So I took a few minutes to put a new one in and then cleaned out the bowl a bit and put in a slightly better accelerator pump (blue series) and a new fuel float...and...ba-da-bing...it fired up an quickly ran.

Now, It didn't run as well as the original carb runs but it ran ok...although a little lean so it wants more fuel....
This makes sense because I didn't bother at the time to set the (new) float level in the '71 carb...so when I get a chance I will pop the top off and reset that for next time.

Always good to have at least 1 spare (good-pretty good) back up carb. It helps with testing or you have a carb issue that requires some 'bench time' but don't really want to lose use of your vehicle that day.
Luckily have a few spare quadrajets....including a '71 B.Block (402), and another '72 350/auto quadrajet (7042210) spare....so no shortage of stuff to try and test as time permits, lol.

Coley

[Coley]

Okay, a bit of an update for those still mildly interested, lol.

Recap: After removing the carb and repairing the well plugs (see previous posts & pics) the litmus test was going to be the 'morning cold start' process.

So today (day 2), I went out this morning (cold start)....gave the gas 2+ pumps and spun the key.
The engine fired right away (no constant cranking!) and went immediately to high idle on the choke....just what I was looking for.
I adjusted the high idle down a few rpm's then kicked it down to a nice low idle about 45 seconds later and was ready to go.

.....looks good, running good....seems to be back on track and overall a very good, interesting experience and minor project.
This is the 'good stuff' on these trucks....figuring out the little things sometimes keeps it mechanically interesting and enjoyable!

So for others, if you are having hard start issues in the morning that don't seem to go away....remember to pull that carb off and inspect those well plugs!!
Its a pretty easy fix and based on my experience so far, well worth it!!

All good
Coley

[dmjlambert]

Good info on this thread and I'm glad you got it fixed. I am curious about a couple of things on your engine that my 1969 truck didn't have. What is this thing going down to the intake manifold that looks like a narrow tube or bar? And what about this tube going into the rear of the driver side rocker arm cover where I was kind of expecting to see an oil fill cap?

[oldgold70c10]

Originally Posted by dmjlambert

Good info on this thread and I'm glad you got it fixed. I am curious about a couple of things on your engine that my 1969 truck didn't have. What is this thing going down to the intake manifold that looks like a narrow tube or bar? And what about this tube going into the rear of the driver side rocker arm cover where I was kind of expecting to see an oil fill cap?

Remote oil cap for factory power brake sb trucks. So you can reach the oil cap because without it is under the booster.

Very nice job on that Q-jet Coley.