Just bought an old 1985 b350 van need help.
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Joined: Oct 2006
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RE: Just bought an old 1985 b350 van need help.
You don't mention how cold is cold. Even when I had a manual choke, I've always had trouble starting in anything below thirty. especially after an overnight. Once it is is going, it is like you say, fine for the rest of the day, or as long as it is used every 5 hours or so.
I don't know for sure what the problem is, the little spring that allero mentions is really a bi-metal wire thermostat. As the engine warms the spring opens the choke. My supposition is that in really really cold weather, the spring actually opens too quickly because the engine body is hot but the carb isn't yet hot enough to pre-heat the air enough. So you get too much cold air causing a stall because the air entering cant hold the fuel. Once it is running the choke should open slightly to allow more air, but not open fully. When everything is hot and you hear the loadding allero is talking about the choke should be brought full open.
My 83, even though it had a manual choke still had trouble starting, but I think that was more due to overcoming the thick oil, and slightly weaker compression from having over 200K miles.
When you change your oil, if you suffer from really cold days, I'd suggest moving to 10w30 for the winter simply because it does make starting easier. and then change back to whatever you use in the summer. I use HD40 then to cut down on the blow-by from from old rings.
I would recommend adjusting the choke when testing with a pencil, dowel, or some such. When the engine stalls there is a real possibility of a backfire, and you don't want your hand there when that happens. A backfire comes back up though the carb not out though the tailpipe that is a different trick. I have successfully lit my air filter on fire while trying to start it one winter...admittedly I was using starting fluid and there was enough in the carb to allow a rolling mist of it to be floating in the throttle body. It was about 12F. For that one I had a 2' high flame.[:-] Looked neat, but not good to repeat.[:@]
I don't know for sure what the problem is, the little spring that allero mentions is really a bi-metal wire thermostat. As the engine warms the spring opens the choke. My supposition is that in really really cold weather, the spring actually opens too quickly because the engine body is hot but the carb isn't yet hot enough to pre-heat the air enough. So you get too much cold air causing a stall because the air entering cant hold the fuel. Once it is running the choke should open slightly to allow more air, but not open fully. When everything is hot and you hear the loadding allero is talking about the choke should be brought full open.
My 83, even though it had a manual choke still had trouble starting, but I think that was more due to overcoming the thick oil, and slightly weaker compression from having over 200K miles.
When you change your oil, if you suffer from really cold days, I'd suggest moving to 10w30 for the winter simply because it does make starting easier. and then change back to whatever you use in the summer. I use HD40 then to cut down on the blow-by from from old rings.
I would recommend adjusting the choke when testing with a pencil, dowel, or some such. When the engine stalls there is a real possibility of a backfire, and you don't want your hand there when that happens. A backfire comes back up though the carb not out though the tailpipe that is a different trick. I have successfully lit my air filter on fire while trying to start it one winter...admittedly I was using starting fluid and there was enough in the carb to allow a rolling mist of it to be floating in the throttle body. It was about 12F. For that one I had a 2' high flame.[:-] Looked neat, but not good to repeat.[:@]