Hi again guys! Ive had a good experience with all of you and this site so far. Now for the issue, when i start the engine after it sits over night, (gets below 20° here right now) car idles extremely rough for a minute or two, it shakes the whole car and does not feel healthy whatsoever. I dont seem to be having any issues with its drivability and i got the oil changed last week and as of this morning its still right on the full mark. I can smell a hint of burning oil when im stopped at lights and the passenger valve cover gasket is leaking slightly around the back of the engine. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

 

The engine also ticks and the tick increases in speed as the engine does. Im not sure if it's related, or just one of the valves being off.

 

Make, Model, Model year, Engine family, Trans info. Ill assume its carbureted? Likely your choke setting needs to be adjusted and verified that it works. The tick is likely an exhaust leak? Could be a rocker or collapsed lifter or a worn cam...Just too hard to give you specifics on that. The answers are very general as I dont know much about your car. Post the requested info and we may be able to get more detailed. Do you have a good mechanic or a friend with some advanced old school car knowledge?

 

One of your other posts says you have an 83 Custom Cruiser, is that correct?

I have an 85 Custom Cruiser, and when I had a problem with hard starts and running really rough when it first started, the first thing I looked at was the carb. There is something called a choke pull off that needs to be operational in order for the choke to work properly. It will be located on the passenger side of your carb. It will also have a vacuum line hooked to it. It is difficult to adjust the choke on a quadrajet, but when you first start the car, you should see the choke pull off arm move towards the pull off housing and disengage the choke using manifold vacuum. As the engine heats up, the choke warms up and opens the butterfly in the carb.

Mine was shot. I bought a new one on ebay for about 5 bucks, replaced it, and problem solved. No more stalling in the mornings. It was violent, too.

As far as your ticking, could be anything. Could be exhaust or a lifter or a valve slapping. I had some ticking in a modern 3.4L V6 and added some Marvel Mystery oil and solved that problem. Couldn't hurt to try that.

Good luck

 

Here is a good example of the choke being set, pulled off after start, and how the engine should start and run when all is well. This is my 403 FH motor. The pulloff link and actuator are pointed out.


http://vid19.photobucket.com/albums/...psnqnqmat1.mp4


ppuullooffff search word

 

Choke pulloff diaphragm as stated. Take aircleaner lid off, set choke and start engine. Watch the choke flap. It should be CLOSED once you set the choke and when engine starts it should open about 1/8", and then slowly open fully as the choke coil warms up. I think some of those engines had the heater hose run thru a clip on the choke housing to help warm and open the choke quicker.


Try snugging yer valve cover bolts to slow the oil leak. Do not overtighten- just snug down if any are loose. Passenger side v/c gasket is a bitch on these engines- dealer flat rate on that job was close to 8 hours.


If car has an air pump and air injection tubes going to the heads, pay close attention to the three AIR check valves. Those are a common source of exhaust leaks on these engines.

 

That too, will help the choke open up quicker. It's called a choke stove pipe or something and it comes up directly from the intake manifold and feeds into the choke coil. Chance are, it's rusted and corroded away and may not be connected. Mine certainly is, so currently I just have a slip of rubber hose over the manifold end until I can get around to JB welding it together.

 

I will give all of those suggestions a look, for your info it is a 1983 custom cruiser 307 5 liter. People who still know how to work on old cars are hard to find around here, just a bunch of college kids with skinny jeans

 

Arrow, that's the manifold choke heat stove. That's an effective if convoluted way to heat the choke thermostat coil with heated air until it burns out in its intake passage.


My 81 Pontiac wagon 307/OD actually had the heater return hose laid against the choke thermostat coil to assist in getting the choke open quicker. Had a special clip it laid in. My current 83 Cruiser was originally a Diesel and the 1974 gas 350 in it now didn't have the clip.

 

Good luck. That's the same engine in my 85. I'll be willing to bet the diaphragm in the pull off is bad and it just needs to be replaced. Your choke is probably fully closed the whole time until the engine warms up enough to affect the choke coil.

Happy cruising!!! Mine is down at the moment. ={

 

The hot air choke works Ok but the tube must be complete in the manifold and the heater hose must sit up against the coil to operate properly. I have seen the tubes rotted out, bad coil and heater hose not up against it. I prefer the Electric choke coil with the hot air hole in the housing plugged with a dab of jb weld. This is from someone with -40 winters. I guarantee either the pull off is leaking or needs opened up a bit more. An easy way to check the pull off diaphram is unhook the hose, push it in and hold your finger tightly on the small vacuum opening. If it moves back with your finger tightly where hose goes on, the diaphram is ruptured and needs replaced.

 

I was getting in there last night and noticed this... It comes from the top of the valve cover on the passenger side of the engine and goes into the front of the carb. If you look on the bottom left, there is the other end of the hose with a rather large screw in the end. I can hear it whistling from the end coning from the carb bit theres no pressure from the other piece. Any idea what this could be?

 

It's whistling from the end coming from the carb because you've probably got a vacuum leak in that line.

Although, to be honest, I can't really discern a whole lot from this pic...

That's not why your car is running so rough in the morning, though, for sure.

 

Yeah it doesnt exactly show where it goesor comes from but it was the best i had to post at the moment. Hopefully i can tear it apart today in the daylight and get some better pictures. Its no problem to replace i was more or less curious as to why it would be plugged up in the first place. The line is in good condition, it looks as if it was intentionally cut and plugged. But why??? It goes into the carb.

 

Speaking from personal experience, the answer to that depends on if you are the original owner or not. If you aren't, without gaining a detailed understanding of the 307 pollution control system on your car, you may never know why the original owner did what he did. -Anywhere on the car.

The 307 in my 85 CC has miles and miles of vacuum lines in it. I don't know about the carb and engine in your 83, but in my 85, it has an electronic quadrajet carb and an onboard computer that governs the fuel air mix based on input from the air pollution pump, O2 sensors and even the unburned hydrocarbons coming off of the exhaust. Some of that is fed thru the vacuum lines and back into the carb to be burned again and any leaks in those lines or failures of the MANY MANY sensors and valves are likely to get plugged up or re-routed by the original owner than replaced.

Your check engine dummy light also probably has black electrical tape covering it as well, I'd be willing to bet. That's because if any of the previous owners did any work to the vacuum lines and the pollution control system without knowing exactly what they were doing, it was likely to throw a code because the computer was getting funny readings. Lol. For the most part, none of that will effect the way your engine runs, though. Maybe a small variation in fuel economy. Mine ran smooth as silk until I developed an intake manifold leak.

 

Easy way to find a vac leak is with a propane torch. Start the engine, then open the gas on the torch (don't light it) and poke it about the vac lines. Go slow .. no, you're not gonna blow anything up. When you hear the engine change sound, you've found a vac leak. Button that up and keep going. Where there's one, there's more.

 

So i did alittle repair on all the vaccum lines i could figure out, and even bought a chilton manual but the vacuum line diagram was alittle less than clear. I messed with with choke diaphragms alittle and one of them held pressure with my finger in place of the vacuum line but the other slowly slid out. I have another custom cruiser that i dont have running right now but when i did it started up in 0°F weather like a champ, however this one is pitiful even at 45 °F sitting for 5 hours while im at work. I really cant figure it out because once it seemd to warm up after a minute and a half or so it would kick over and suddenly is a different engine. The one i had that starts up great idles much higher at startup than when warmed up but this seems slow enough to stall out or almost as if its missing. But like i said once it warms up it runs great, smooth, and doesnt miss.

 

Adjust the front pull off with a Phillips screw driver so pushes the choke open more. If it is open too much, it will stall. Start a turn at a time, if it makes it worse, go the other way. There is also a speed adjustment screw pointing to the firewall for the fast idle. Is the front or rear pull off leaking? The front one is the most important.

 

When you refer to adjusting do you mean the screw on the passenger side of the engine? Or where the arm moves when you press the throttle? And i believe the one on the front is leaking, what are the exact name to these pieces because i went to 3 different auto parts stores and they all looked at me like i was speaking jibberish the second i mentioned carborated..

 

Also, if it tuns out to be possible for me to post videos on here ill put one up tomorrow morning of the engine starting cold

 

The pull off adjustment is right on the front pull off diaphragm. The fast idle adjustment is on the passenger side, bottom mid carb under the linkage pointing back.

 

The front choke pull off is the most important. If it is leaking, you MUST just purchase a new one. If it is slowly moving out of the housing when you stop up the valve with your finger, that means the diaphragm is shot. Get it from Rockauto.com (has exact pictures) or ebay. I've had luck with Autozone in the past, but when it came to the choke pull off (the exact name of that piece), I got the same deer in headlights look you got; even from a couple of the old timers. With the choke pull off, it is literally something you bolt off and bolt the new one on and I promise you, you're gonna notice the difference.

Also, unfortunately, the vacuum diagrams in the "off the shelf" tear down manuals are barely useable. You need to get a chasis service manual. I got one off ebay for $10 shipped! I will include a diagram that I found and made notes on for your review and maybe it will help you out. I made the notes when I was contemplating tearing most of the crap out until I realized that the computer relies on a lot of it for smooth operation.

 

Did you observe what the choke was doing during this time? Your carb is being choked and not getting enough air and that's why it sounds and runs like that.

 

Thank you for the diagram this is extremely helpful, and this morning i took a look at the carb as it was starting up and you guys are correct the engine is getting overly choked. Ill pick up the part and test it out. Thank you very much i would have never figured this out

 

Frankly it sounds like not one of you viewed the video I offered, showing this exact part, how it works when working right, and how good the engine runs when it is working right. Points out the pulloff link and everything.


All you would have to do is watch that video, observe the link and pulloff, and then see if your carb does the same thing.


If there is a leak in your pulloff diaphragm, it will not pull.... off... the choke as you see happening in that there video.


A picture is worth 1000 words so a video must be more than that, eh?


You can also reach over there and manipulate the choke while it is running, and see if it would prefer more or less choke, then adjust accordingly.

 

I did view your video when you first posted it but after the first time viewing it it wouldnt let me play it anymore, and that video did point me in the right direction I just didnt know what exactly what working and what wasnt and after a littke research and cross referencing i figured out what each piece was called and which one wasnt working properly. I do extremely appreciate the video but like I said it wouldn't work after the fist time of viewing. Ill attempt to post a video after i get the correct parts and get everything up and running. Thank you very much and ill be posting soon!

 

That is weird, for me it appears in its own window and then replays over and over.

Windoze XP and google chrome [neither supported any more I guess]

 

Im using a smartphone so im sure theres numerous things that could go wrong, but im using a different browser now and it seems to be working fine. I played around with the choke today and the secondary slowly extends back out with my finger over the the tip and the front acts as if my finger isnt there at all. It just shoots straight back out. I ordered the primary and secondary just to be safe today so well see how she goes.

 

Lol, Your front one is shot big time. Just get both, bolt them on the carb and you'll be right as rain!

 

Would you happen to be in the navy arrowstorm? I noticed youve got a destroyer on the back of your custom cruiser and you also call it that so just putting 2 together haha

 

No. My grandfather was an electrician on a few destroyers in the Pacific in WWII and he was a wagon man too. =}

 

Thats awesome so im sure he saw quite a few, my great grandfather was a merchant marine and owned an old Hurst back in those days. Ive been digging around because my great grandmother says theres a picture of it somewhere and she doesnt know what it was called. I guess it runs in the blood

 

I got both the primary and secondary choke in finally and got them on, i guess tomorrow morning will be the true test!

 

Started her up this moring and everything was perfect! Took the CC out on an all day cruise and it ran strong all the way, even did a little hauling. Had the oil checked while i was out and it hasn't list a drop in 3 weeks. Thanks so much guys and im sure ill be posting soon!

 

Excellent. Keep on cruisin!