choke or no choke?

[747mopar]

I've been talking to FBO about having them tune and ship me a new Quick Fuel but his recommendation comes without a choke horn? I'm obviously worried about not having a choke in Ohio and think I might be better off with it and wanted to hear from those who get away with it or condemn the idea. I'll have to go home and crank the choke wide open and see how it starts but wanted to see what you guys thought.

 

[lewtot184]

i live in indiana and everything i have that has a carb has a choke; electric, hot air or manual. single carb, quads, 6-pak or lawn mower; they have a choke.

 

[440+6]

A properly adjusted choke will make your car start instantly in hot or cold weather, I can't see any reason not to have a choke on a carburated engine.

 

[HT413]

I bought my car with the choke disconnected and it took some babying to get it to run on cold days here in NJ. Much easier to start it with my Holley electric choke kit. Try starting a cold chainsaw with no choke.

 

[747mopar]

Likewise, I run electric chokes on my cars as well which is why I'm questioning his recommendation. Maybe I'll ask about the Black Diamond Quick Fuel that has a choke!

 

[furryfrog]

I have no choke on my holley 4150 blow thru carb, Just got the car on the road,and it starts fine in about 0degrees celcius ( about 32 degrees farieheight). I need to give it 4 pumps when cold, and hold the gas a little for a minute. I have no option for a choke in my carb turbo setup though, If it was possible I would prefer to have one because this is a street car that I drive often. In a few days I will have my wideband hooked up and am curious how the idle & cruise mixture is, I am guessing it will be on the rich side. I previously had a quadrejet on the car and the mixture was leaned out as much as it would go for fuel economy, there was no way the car was going to start without the choke.
I had a no choke carb on a suck through blower setup, and it started fine, and again had to hold the throttle a little for a minute, but I think the blower warmed up the air a lot and made easier.

 

[SlinktRR]

I don't use a choke anymore. I relied on it when I was getting used to carbs along with the fast idle cam, but now I know how to feed in enough gas to keep the mixture rich enough to keep running. I have the exhaust crossovers open so this seems to allow me to get the motor warmed up quickly. Do have to baby the gas pedal for a minute. My next carb will not have a choke.

 

[hunt2elk]

I don't run chokes on my cars and don't have a problem with it that way. You don't have this problem, but I would have hood clearance problems with my RPM intakes and choke horns.

 

[HT413]

And i think the issue comes down to that, hunt2elk. If you don't mind working the throttle until its warm, he chick is probably a non issue.

 

[747mopar]

O.K. there's only one way to figure this out and since it's freezing *** cold out I'll just go fire it up with the choke disabled! I do know starting it with a choke (loosely set to open quickly) it runs like crap until it's fully open so it may be fine?

 

[lewtot184]

i think the biggest problem with automatic chokes is that people don't know how to adjust them. manual chokes are easy but even they revert back to "the people problem".

 

[440+6]

i think the biggest problem with automatic chokes is that people don't know how to adjust them. manual chokes are easy but even they revert back to "the people problem".

Agreed, if your choke is working properly the car will start instantly, put it in gear and drive away normally, no waiting, no playing with throttle, no nothing just drive.
I have had plenty of cars with chokes and have three now and they all work perfectly.

Learn how to adjust all aspects of the choke system, if your car runs like crap when the choke is on something is wrong.

 

[747mopar]

That may be the case with others but I'm not lazy about tuning a carb, I tweek until I'm happy. I think there's a few things contributing to the choke issue on mine, one is Demons have a goofy choke plate with huge holes that don't do a good job of choking and the more likely issue being that this carb has to be stupid rich (at idle) to run decent. I've played with it quiet a bit and am down to the air bleeds which my carb doesn't have. I'm switching to a 750 to gain more velocity (better tunability at idle) and to get a carb with adjustable air bleeds. As it is it runs great but stinks something fierce at idle. Here's a picture of the choke plate.

 

[440+6]

May very well be the carb, if its real rich at idle adding choke to it will definitely make it run like crap, from my experience the carb has to be properly tuned 100% before the choke can be set.
That choke plate dose have some big windows for sure.
What carb is that?

 

[lewtot184]

the slots in the choke blade can be an advantage. one thing i've found thru the decades is that a carb can't be adjusted properly if there are any weaknesses in the ignition. a fat idle may indicate the need for a more aggressive ignition curve.

 

[bm02tj]

If you use this car on the strip only go with no choke as they can give you better air flow
if not use a choke life is to short to have to fight it

 

[Sonny Black]

Sonny has no choke......still starts as in warm weather...just give a bit of gas for a min or 2:eusa_think:


less is more for Sonny, no power steering, no power brakes. 1 fan belt!...EZ for a weekend shade tree guy to mess around with.

 

[Chargered]

I don't have a choke on my 6 pack. It starts a little hard when it starts to get down into the 30s or 40s. I would prefer to have a choke for easier cold starts, but just havn't gotten around to it.

 

[Cranky]

I'm also one that doesn't run a choke. Granted, I'm in Texas but it does get cold here from time to time. Heck, we had a light freeze last night! A couple of pumps, hit the key with your foot off the gas and when it fires, start 'feathering' the throttle. During single digit weather several winters ago, it took a few tries but within a couple of minutes, it was warm enough to drive off. Vehicle was a 79 Dodge D150 with a nicely modified E58 360. It was my tow vehicle/daily driver/drag truck until I got a real drag car going but I've had several cars with no choke Holley carbs with all having DP's on them.

 

[747mopar]

the slots in the choke blade can be an advantage. one thing i've found thru the decades is that a carb can't be adjusted properly if there are any weaknesses in the ignition. a fat idle may indicate the need for a more aggressive ignition curve.

I've played with the timing quiet a bit as well, right now initial is 20 with the vacuum advance pulling another 10 in as soon as it fires to put it at 30 and total is set at 36.

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May very well be the carb, if its real rich at idle adding choke to it will definitely make it run like crap, from my experience the carb has to be properly tuned 100% before the choke can be set.
That choke plate dose have some big windows for sure.
What carb is that?

850 Speed Demon DP with the choke kit added.

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Sonny has no choke......still starts as in warm weather...just give a bit of gas for a min or 2:eusa_think:


less is more for Sonny, no power steering, no power brakes. 1 fan belt!...EZ for a weekend shade tree guy to mess around with.

Haha, I hear ya.............. K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid)!