Starting Problem

[CUBaseball]

My brother-in-law's 69 C-10 has been having a problem starting and he wanted me to post a question. He just performed a full tune-up but has had a problem cold starting the truck. It will compression start easily and run great, and start easily when warm, but will just crank and crank when cold. He has fairly new edelbrock 1406 on a goodwrench 350 and was wondering if the 1406 might have a fuel bowl issue that is affecting air/fuel mixture on a cold startup. Everything else (electrical, timing, ect.) have been checked but he does know carbs as well as he wants. Any advice will be appreciated.

[HomerJ]

Originally Posted by CUBaseball

My brother-in-law's 69 C-10 has been having a problem starting and he wanted me to post a question. He just performed a full tune-up but has had a problem cold starting the truck. It will compression start easily and run great, and start easily when warm, but will just crank and crank when cold. He has fairly new edelbrock 1406 on a goodwrench 350 and was wondering if the 1406 might have a fuel bowl issue that is affecting air/fuel mixture on a cold startup. Everything else (electrical, timing, ect.) have been checked but he does know carbs as well as he wants. Any advice will be appreciated.

CUB,

Sounds like your B-I-L has the same issue as a lot of other Edelbrock carb owners have - myself included.

I haven't ever heard of anyone finding the absolute answer to the problem, but many have speculated that the fuel evaporates out of the bowls to the point that the fuel pump has to fill them back up before the engine will fire. This stands to reason (for me, at least), because if I use some type of "startup fluid" or dump a very small amout of fuel into the carb, the engine fires up immediately. As long as I put enough in for the engine to run for a few seconds, everything's good. If I don't put enough in, the engine will still start and run briefly, but will die. I then have to crank until the pump gets enough fuel into the bowls to fill the accelerator pump bore, so it can be used to squirt a blast of raw fuel into the intake.

I have read where some owners of these carbs don't experience the problem, but I believe that most of us do.

Hope this helps....

HomerJ

[Wrenchbender Ret]

Make shure the choke closes tight. Pump the foot feed a couple of times before you start it & continually pump it as it cranks. It,s like Homer says the gas evaporates when setting & it has to fill the bowl. The accel. pump draws fuel from the lower part of the bowl so by pumping it you prime it before the bowl is full. We have gotten so used to these fuel injected vehicles that we forget how to deal with carbs.

[El Jay]

Originally Posted by Wrenchbender Ret

Make shure the choke closes tight. Pump the foot feed a couple of times before you start it & continually pump it as it cranks. It,s like Homer says the gas evaporates when setting & it has to fill the bowl. The accel. pump draws fuel from the lower part of the bowl so by pumping it you prime it before the bowl is full. We have gotten so used to these fuel injected vehicles that we forget how to deal with carbs.

Foot feed?
You're showing our age. How many of these kids knows what a foot feed is?

[68gmsee]

Foot feed?? What is that?

I'm not familiar with edelbrocks, but I would check the float level when cold to see if it's drained out completely. Sometimes you can actually see or smell the fuel with the breather removed if it has a bad leak.

Check the needle valve and seat to see if they're bad. Fuel may be leaking back.

[jonnybravo]

i have the same problem with my 68 gmc it did it with the old quadrajet and with a brand new edelbrock i was wondering if i put a check valve in the fuel line it would cure it

[CUBaseball]

thanks for all the advice, I'll pass it on to him and maybe we can solve the problem.

[DREAMS OF A 67]

An electric fuel pump will fix it.

[Longhorn Man]

interesting, I've run edelbrocks exclusivly on all my trucks except the burb for 11 years, and have never had this issue.

[72BLUZ]

mine has the same setup. i believe they need some sort of check valve in line to keep the fuel from leaking back

[powell72]

My wife and I both have Edelbrocks on our trucks, her's has the same problem and mine can sit for a week and light right up with one pump. I was thinking the floats are low on her truck and will be checking them this week. I'll post some feedback when I'm done.