Hello - I blocked the exhaust cross-over in my '66 Toronado, which has the stove choke coil right over the cross-over. When the engine is completely cold or fully warmed up, everything is fine, but I am having an annoying lag in the operation of the choke, which is not surprising given that it's receiving much less heat now. It used to work flawlessly before.

Any suggestions on how I can compensate for this?

Thanks.

 

You could put on an electric choke. Here's a thread discussing it. I don't know if this would interfere with the air cleaner or touch the intake. But it might be an option to explore.
Electric choke wiring - ClassicOldsmobile.com

 

Thank you, but I thought that only hot air choke carbs could be converted to electric?

 

I think your right. Brain fart on my part!

 

 

So just out of curiosity, what benefit were you expecting from blocking the crossover? This is one of those things that only makes sense if you need the last tenth of a second in the quarter. I have a hard time seeing how this will help or even be noticeable performance-wise on a Toro. If this is about not burning the paint on the intake, to me that's just a sign that the car is driven and not a trailer queen. Sorry, but you kind of asked for this problem. The bimetallic coil in the choke is designed for a certain heat rate. Short of changing the coil (and there are no alternatives anyway), you're kind of out of luck. Your only alternative is to find a newer carb with a hot air coil and convert it to electric. Of course, then you need to play with the jetting and other settings on the new carb to work with your current engine. It's a slippery slope.

 

It was boiling the fuel in the fuel bowl and after sitting overnight I would have to crank the engine as if it had been sitting for a year. Now it will sit for a week and start instantly.

I believe we had this discussion already on a different thread.

 

I would just wait a few minutes for the engine to warm a bit before driving. Once the engine is up to temp I'm sure you won't have any issues.

 

Would a manual choke work?

 

Give Ken a call at Everyday Performance, www.everyday-performance.com. He has electric choke conversion kits for the divorced choke quadrajets. Although on the website he does not show one specifically for Oldsmobile, the Olds QJ is very much the same on the choke linkage as the Pontiac QJ which he does show on the site. I don't think you would have much luck trying to put a manual choke on a divorced choke QJ.