It's freezing here in Texas and I can't get my 70 cutlass 350 to start. The choke is completely cold. I tried opening it a bit, pouring a little gas in there and many other tricks but it's a no go. I was told I may have to get the carb adjusted for the winter but this is houston texas there is no winter lol. My luck it snowed last night and is in the 30's today. Any of my midwest or east coast guys know any tricks?

I did have it running while the sun was out put the choke never got warm enough to open when I hit the gas it cut off.

 

These cars can and did start in -20. Your choke may be broken and you never noticed being warm down there. Diagnosis would involve taking the rod off the choke (I can't recall if a 70 is divorced choke or onboard) and seeing if the linkage is working freely, then seeing if the bimetallic element works right.

However, damn cold is not the time for diagnosis. Go put a lightbulb under the oilpan in a bare bulb lamp on a cord. It will heat the oil up a bit for you for in the AM. Make sure it's on the fast idle cam, give it a couple pumps for the accelerator pump, and, once it goes and stabilizes, let it run on fast idle till it starts picking up more rpm (like ten min), then blip it once and it should settle down. Do this after it has had the lightbulb for the night. Mind oil does not drip on the bulb, you don't want a fire. Do NOT use a candle.

 

I will wait until tomorrow when its warmer. I just had everything under the hood replaced so if all else fails I'll have the shop come pick it up. I did check the choke and all seemed in line. As I mentioned it started for me earlier also the shop told me I would have to adjust the choke in the winter time.

 

correct gas pedal procedure??? My car doesnt have a choke and you can start it easily and have to give alittle gas un till alittle warm

 

You probably flooded it, spark plugs have trouble working when saturated with fuel. Hold the gas pedal to the floor while cranking.

 

Hmm, -20, try -40+ with a windchill, they ran all winter up here back in the day. It should have a decent anount of choke tension but not too much. Also the pull off should open around 1/4" when it starts

 

Windchill doesn't affect the car.

 

I disagree, try to start and drive vehicles in a -50 or -60C windchill. If anything like a weak battery, defective block heater or borderline weak antifreeze, bad things happen. Even parking a car in an unheated garage makes a difference.

 

Wind chill is not a measure of temperature. It is a measure of the rate of heat conduction, in this case the rate of cooling. If the ambitent temperature is, say, 20 degrees F, that is the temperature to which anything without its own internal source of heat will cool to, including a non-running car. If the wind is blowing at 40 mph, the object will cool to that temperature faster than it would if the wind were blowing at 20 mph. But the final temperature of the object will not be lower than 20F.

If you park your car outside overnight on a night when the temperature dips to 20F, that will be the temperature of the car, and anything else that was exposed to that temperature overnight, regardless of the wind's velocity. The car doesn't care how fast it got to 20F. All it knows is that it is at 20F. How fast the wind is blowing will not affect how easy or difficult the car is to start.

 

 

Got to be something in the choke setting or it's now flooded like others said.

I ran mine last December when my daily was getting fresh tires. It was in the low 30's mine started and ran fine. It was sleeting a little within 2 miles of home.

Pat

 

Al rite then, why if you park the car facing the winds direction and try to start in early AM, chances are it won't start.
Yet, Back your car into the winds direction and try to start it early AM, in most cases the car will start
Don't say its because the engine bay gets snow packed when parked in the winds direction. That's an insulator at that point, from the wind.
When you live in stone cold or snow belt area's with high windchill's at times you know the windchill has an affect on your car and battery.
Jus' sayin'

 

 

Windchill doesn't cool you below air temperature (assuming no other heat sources). It just increases the rate of heat loss.

 

If the choke is closed when the engine is running, it won't be for long regardless of the outside air temp. Opening the throttle plates w/ a choke that is completely closed only sucks more gas into the engine and floods it. It should crack open once the engine starts.

Pull the air cleaner lid off, open the choke and hold it there w/ a screw driver or something that won't fall down the carb or touch the throttle plates, crank it for ~15-20 seconds to be sure its not flooded, then squirt some starter fluid down the carb. Hold the pedal down ~1/4 way and crank it. If that doesn't get it to fire, check for spark by pulling a plug wire and sticking a paper clip in the end of the wire. If you have spark, then something else is wrong. I've never had starter fluid not work on a non-flooded engine w/ spark and the choke held open.

Also, be sure your battery has a good charge, if its old or weak, cold weather can reduce its output capacity significantly. If the resistor that limits coil / points current isn't getting bypassed when you turn the key to crank, you might not be getting any spark w/ a weak battery while cranking.

WRT wind chill, assuming the engine is warm when you parked it facing into or away from the wind, the wind will definitely cool the engine faster, reducing the time before the core of the engine block reaches ambient air temperature. Heat from the engine has a big effect on how the carb and choke work, its designed that way. Wind speed and direction does have an effect unless the car is parked for several hours.

 

I am a former Navy meteorologist and what some of the comments above say are true. The temp cannot go below ambient...unless there is some moisture available to provide evaporation cooling. The evaporation process will cool below ambient temperature much like compressed air will cool when being de-compressed. There is probably no moisture present in the situations above so the temperature cannot go below ambient, no matter which the wind is blowing, unless there is humidity in the air.

 

Living in and around Chicago all of my life, preparing cars for cold weather was a way of life. As has been stated above, "flooding" is a common problem..... the cause is commonly a car in need of a tune-up (plugs, points, rotor, cap, wires, timing) In the 60's-70's the "fall" tune-up was a way of life. Part of the tune-up is checking the "choke pull-off" I don't know how many I had to replace "back in the day"

 

Back to OP question, put a good size screwdriver in carb to hold choke open a bit and try starting it.

 

I've seen this in my owner's manual, on page 16. It says, "when parking the car overnight in cold weather, always make sure the front of the car faces east."

 

What kind of a choke do you have? Is it electric? Do NOT adjust the choke when the engine is warm. You have to adjust it when its cold.

 

Not questioning the competence of your shop but realize carbs haven't been the norm for over 25 years now, so be careful there. Carbs can be very intimidating but if you take the time to learn how they operate it can save you a lot of unnecessary headaches. Some shops are parts changers few are problem solvers. Don't know about the rest of the country but here it's more profitable to hire cheap labor and guess. Trouble shooting is not efficient. It's the main reason I do most of my own work.

Northeast coast advice, If you pump the peddle two or three times and it doesn't start there is definitely an issue. Yea, I know, "thanks captain obvious," but when was the last time you went through the whole carb. With all the unnecessary and unfounded ethanol in fuel today it's not very carburetor friendly. Once you've established it's not the choke check the fuel filter and pressure. While I don't advocate jumping into taking the carb apart it might be time. I had issues with an 85' 35 HP Evinrude motor about 6 years ago. Used all the marine grade crap too. When I opened the carbs they had a dust in the bowl that looked like fine sawdust. Never had time to get the carbs done as that year Sandy hit and I sold my destroyed house as well as the 13' Whaler and moved on. Granted temperature had nothing to do with my issue I'd still be cautiously suspect of what's kicking around in the carb. I've got about 5,000 miles on my Q-jet and it will start in 30 degrees no problem. The 2 barrel I had with the 350 last year was tough to start, but that had many other problems too. Hasn't been any colder since I did the swap in May. Good luck.

 

Lord tunderin' that's a handy owners manual to have. I'm going to write that down on page 16 of mine.
Put-r-ther!! I just have to try 'n' figure out which way is east haha.

 

Parked facing East makes sense, due to the prevailing West winds.

 

Sorry, but this is where it's good to pay attention in physics class.

"Windchill" is a mythical number that attempts to quantify the APPARENT temperature when the evaporative cooling of the sweat on your skin makes it feel colder than it is. Cars don't sweat. If the temperature is 33 with a windchill of 29, water STILL doesn't freeze.

 

I am not a meteorologist, but I am a mechanical engineer. Heat transfer is in three forms: conductive, convective, and radiating. Radiating is simply throwing heat, and it is how the sun heats our planet. Everything radiates. Conductive is when you are touching something hot. Stuff can conduct heat to the surrounding (still) air or water. Convective is a fan. Moving air grabs heat, or deposits it.


Your engine will conduct heat through its block, then through the attachments to the rest of the compartment, but, mostly, it will heat up the surrounding air via convection, then radiation as it sits. Everyone is correct, it can't get below ambient.


I have two theories regarding parking away from the wind. First, your car will cool off slower facing away from the wind as that wind is not bothering the radiator like it would with nose on wind. Secondly, with winter wind comes humidity. Electrical connections do not like humidity, and damp mornings with moist air blowing at the engine compartment all night may make her not fire in the AM. Hotter than ambient is drier, so I'd much rather have an engine that hit ambient a few hours later and didn't have moist air blowing in it all evening.


Garages, of course, are top notch. Took my Chevy to the BMV this AM for titling here in IN finally. Keep it in one stall of the two car attached garage, weak battery but fired right up after a few seconds of cranking. Insulated, dry garage, best accommodations that car has ever had, and it's welcome to them.

 

If you have ever seen a sprinkler system running when the temp is around 33 to 35 with light wind and a very fine spray is in the air. The evaporation process can and probably will cool the air to below 32 and freeze the fine particles of water.

 

That probably has more to do with the change in pressure of the water, absorbing heat.

 

2bbl or 4bbl? Stock carburetor?
Does it crank strong?
How are the spark plugs?
Timing chain ever been replaced?

 

Think about where the sun rises in the morning.

 

Yes, there is a difference in temperature between summer and winter and the choke needs to be adjusted so it works properly under both conditions. It sounds as if yours was closing off completely, which likely means it was adjusted to be closed at a warmer temperature and now that there is much colder weather the choke flap is closing too tightly.

 

Ken has a point. Mine starts wonderfully from about 50 degrees and hotter; any colder and it tries to sound like it has a performance cam till it warms up.


Bluuump....bluuump....bluump, etc.

 

Catching the early rays from the sun makes sense. Anything that will warm the engine a little will help. Facing away from the wind will help avoid moisture being blown into the engine bay. Although at much below 20f the air should be dry.
#1 priority should be making sure the battery is up to the job. Severe cold will test every component involved with starting. Back in the days of points ignition and carburettors nationwide breakdown services knew that their Scottish customers, who expected hard winters every year, had fewer cold starting issues than those from Southern England where conditions were normally much milder.

Roger.

Roger.

 

As a Canadian, of Scottish heritage, we know our cars need block heaters, at least a 50/50 mix antifreeze/water and a good battery. Having EFI, there is almost no more need for gas line antifreeze plus just runs better and allows command start. Being in town, which is much more sheltered than some farm yards, means easier starting in -45 weather.