The Oldsmobile Connection

delta88uk · Joined: 06 Jan 2004 Posts: 22 Location: Essex, UK

Hi all,

Right then, this is a weird one...
My delta starts up fine every time, and runs beautifully EXCEPT when it get very cold (ice on the road cold). Now, what happens is it fires up quickly, and the auto choke comes on fine also. After about 2 minutes, It sounds like it starts to misfire and my guess is the autochoke is coming off too early as the car starts to splutter and stall, but i've had the choke checked out and it seems fine. After this stall, the car will not start again, just turns over. Someone told me it could be the petrol vapours freezing in the carb, but it sounds a bit unlikely.
Has anyone else had these problems, and if so, how was it cured??

I have the 350ci V8 with a 4-barrel holley with holley auto choke.

Any help would be gratefully received!!!

cheers, dave

88delta88 · Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 2409 Location: Canada

ETHER!!! That'll get you moving on a cold day! :-)

strokercutlass · Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 379 Location: Wis

dave, when the car stalls, does it smell like gas? Either the choke is coming off too early, or staying on too long. One way to check...when it dies, you aid it won't restart...try pumping the gas a couple times, then try again to start it, if it starts, the choke is kicking off too fast. Otherwise you can also take the air cleaner off, start the car, and watch the choke. When the motor is fully cold, how far is the choke closed? It shouldn't be fully closed, it should have approx. 1/8"-1/4" of space between the rear of the choke blade and the rear of the primary side...

delta88uk · Joined: 06 Jan 2004 Posts: 22 Location: Essex, UK

right, when you start the car, the butterfly is right where you say, and once the car starts to warm up (2 mins or so) the butterfly starts to open. BUT if you blip the throttle after 30 secs or so the butterfly opens early. So it appears it coming off to quickly, haven't tried to restart it yet as the weather is warmer so fault isn't happening!!

Any ideas??

strokercutlass · Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 379 Location: Wis

Quote: BUT if you blip the throttle after 30 secs or so the butterfly opens early

Thats telling you to let the car warm up for more than 30 seconds! :lol:

Seriously, it sounds like your carb has an awful fast electric choke...the Holleys are designed with the choke stepup, so when you get in, you step on the gas, and that will set the stepup on the choke...then when you start the car, the stepup allows the choke to remain closed, while keeping a higher idle, so the car will warm up faster...when you step on the gas early, and drop it off the stepup, its allowing the choke to open faster, causing your stalling problem...if the idle after startup is concerning you, there should be an adjustment screw on the side of the carb to back off the idle speed a bit, otherwise just let the car run a bit longer on high idle, and then step on the gas to drop it off high idle...

delta88uk · Joined: 06 Jan 2004 Posts: 22 Location: Essex, UK

ok, i left it to warm for a couple of minutes then touched the throttle, and the idle dropped down again and it started to stall. i kept her running and held the throttle down a bit so she ran well, but even after about 5 mins when i let off the gas the engine still stalls! and its only in this cold weather! mad!! Any other ideas or advice?? i think a manual choke conversion kit is the best idea!!!

73Delta88 · Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 6:47 pm Post subject:

has it been tuned up recently? (spark plugs, distributor cap, etc)

delta88uk · Joined: 06 Jan 2004 Posts: 22 Location: Essex, UK

i replaced the plugs about 4 weeks ago, but not touched the distributor. might give it a once over this weekend!

Primer Death · Joined: 08 Jun 2003 Posts: 102 Location: Maine

delta88uk wrote: ok, i left it to warm for a couple of minutes then touched the throttle, and the idle dropped down again and it started to stall. i kept her running and held the throttle down a bit so she ran well, but even after about 5 mins when i let off the gas the engine still stalls! and its only in this cold weather! mad!! Any other ideas or advice?? i think a manual choke conversion kit is the best idea!!!

My car had the opposite problem...ran too high...on the driverside on the carb. there should be a soliniod with a nut on the end of it...loosen it up a lil' it will bring the RPMs up...