VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Electrical - 6 volt Hot Starting

Those heat shields under the carbs were on all the Pontiac straight 8's that my family owned including myself. That is a great idea if you could measure one from a Pontiac, than make one to fit under carb on Chevys. Believe it would help.

Jim.

Firstly a wood insulator would cause more problems with rough running being porous and therefore a vacuum leak.
Secondly the tin shield and gasket between the carb and bakelite insulator would probably be the best way given the temps listed above. It may not be factory but I doubt many would notice and even less will care.
Tony

Hate to be contrary mate, but, I have done it. It works Great. Secondly its been done for a long time. So long in fact, Edelbrock has made them for years.

http://shop.oreillyauto.com/Product...frPartNumber=8725&CategoryCode=3339T

Thirdly, Bakelite is wood and phenolic resin, cooked under pressure. And the stock insultors were Bakelite. Unfortunetly, Dennys problem isn't heat radiating through the carb. So, my suggestion is still a dud.

Cheers.

Well, it’s the main reason that most people don’t like me, the fact that I just can’t leave something alone until I get an answer that make sense to me. So I’m trying to find the logic in the responses. I hope we’re not getting way off subject here from Chief Chevy’s original question, it was hard starting when hot, but it sounds like his problem was mechanical in nature not a fuel related problem.

Kerosene huh Gene? I assume that the logic behind that is to drop the vapor pressure of the fuel? And as to the correctness, once again, other than having a blanked off a vacuum tap in the wiper vacuum line and a ’49 Carter W-1 in place of the ’50 Rochester ”˜B’ for now, everything else is “stock/correct”, if I’m missing something I would really appreciate someone letting me know what it is. God knows, I’ve posted enough pictures so I taint hiding nothin’.

Now Chipper, I believe you had mentioned before when the subject of carburetion was being discussed (comes up every other week you know) that you had rebuilt hundreds of carburetors. So I have to assume that your expert in this field. Correct me if I’ve misunderstood you but it seems like what your saying is, that the modern engines that are half the displacement and put out twice to three times the power of our old low compression engines and normally operated at twice the rpm’s as the old engines, do not require fuels with a low vapor pressure? And as Gene has suggested, I assume that by adding Diesel fuel (akin to kerosene), Marvel Mystery Oil or Automatic Transmission Fluid your aim is also to drop the vapor pressure of the fuel? I might make mention, that I have been adding 6oz. of MMO to every tank of fuel (13-14gal) for a couple of years now. Don’t notice any difference from when I didn’t add it, but I figured it isn’t going to hurt anything and just may by some stretch of the imagination help keep the top end a little cleaner.

Master47, no I haven’t tried higher-octane fuels than the regular blends. All of the fuels around here use alcohol to up the octane that’s the good side, the bad side is it drops the vapor pressure of the fuel. So although you have a slower burning fuel with the high octane you end up with a fuel that will turn to a vapor at a lower temperature, i.e., it drops the boiling point. This is a very confusing subject and I’m not saying that the fuel is boiling. The heat that the carburetor is absorbing expands the fuel in the bowl and causes it to dump into the carb throat.

Stylemaster, I gotta say, that’s some pretty bold statements for a 1/2” thick carburetor spacer, ” Use Spacer to Enhance Low-RPM Torque; Use to Enhance Throttle Response; Dampens Reversion Effects on the Carburetor”, That means that Bakelite spacer I got under the carb on my 216 orta just be packing my engine with power.
I’m sure their spacer is not solid wood like we were talking about. And I believe it’s the resin that is doing the insulating since it makes up the majority of the spacer volume. If they use wood for a filler with a resin binder then they can claim that it’s a wood spacer. Bakelite fillers or reinforcement, could be wood flower, clay, walnut shells or shells from various nuts, carbon, asbestos, Kevlar, paper, fiberglass or any of the hundreds of materials that have been use as a fillers over the years.

And Tony, I just gotta ax ya the same question as I asked Gene, does your ’38 Chevy require a tin plate under the carb to run correctly??? If not, why should mine need one???
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I was just letting you guys know that I'm not just makin junk up.

I like you

I am not saying I did anything special to make my cars start easily. I feel I am just lucky because I do see so many with the problem your having.

Marvel Mystery Oil will not help the starting problem because its mainly a solvent and has a much lower flash point then an actual oil. 2 cycle oil would be a better choice. The mixture with the kerosene reduces the boiling point of the gas so it is more like the gas from 40 years ago. Don't know about all the PRESSURE stuff.

Wether or not you need the "tin plate" can only be answered by giving it a trial. Would be easy to experiment with a thin aluminum plate like what comes with a frozen pie. The main idea it to prevent the heat from the exhaust manifold from rising straight up.

I didn't know O'Reilly and Checker, Schucks, Kragen were affiliated. That information was all that was availible at that link.


I've not had any problems hot starting with any of the 3 carburated vehicles I have.

It sounds like the gas companies are using their winter formula regardless of the season.

One overhaul back (1940 Chev 300,000 miles), after the overhaul, I had the hot-start problem. New battery, new battery cables (6 volt), new spark plug leads, new coil, new points, new condenser, two or three carburetors, all with no results. Last ditch effort - took the starter off and had it bench checked. Starter bench checked good. However, the elctric shop had a rebuilt starter that they let me use. Tried the rebuilt starter and did not have the hot-start problem. Had my starter rewound and have not had any hot-start problems (one more overhaul 412,000 miles)since. Apparently, even tho my old starter (300,000 miles still turned the engine good and tested good on the bench) when installed and loaded during hot start was dragging just enough to keep the car fron starting (starter did not sound like it was dragging during hot-start). I was driving the car daily in those days and like an earlier discussion mentioned, I discovered that slight push and pop the clutch and the car stared immediately. This discovery is what led me to checking the starter.

MIKE, I have a 40 chevy with the no start when hot.I cant believe the all the form space for this problem . I have owned several of these cars 1949,1950,1948 and never had this problem? In high school the parking lot was full of these old chevies no such problems.I was stuck in the car wash couple days ago - slowly turns over wont start ,wife and I pushed car about 20 feet popped clutch fired right up drove home no problem. I've read a lot of replies and I'm in the mist of upgrading cables and battery to John Deere standards .Hope this will help my problem.Starter is next on list!

Howard - I think you have a '50 Chevy

Denny
My 38 was missing several engine parts when I acquired it and have not attempted any mechanical repairs to date. Being a mechanic by trade that was going to be the easy part, the body work was a totally different story so that is where I started and still have a lot to do.
Tony

Gene, I wish this was a 1950 at least I would understand the shift linkage and how to adjust it

I had this hot starting problem with my 1937 Chevrolet coupe with a 6 volt 216 engine. I replaced the 6 volt battery with an 8 volt battery and now it starts almost every time.