Cold natured ??

[Plymouthy Adams]

if you a Yugo fan watch the movie "Drowning Mona" the town cop drives what would be a super car in comparison.

[wayfarerstranger]

seriously ..... i couldn`t find a YUGO motor the last one that sold around here DON C, bought & attached it to his MARGARITA blender !!! TURNS OUT IT WAS BURNT POINTS ..... PURRRRRRRRRRRRS LIKE A KITCHEN i mean kitten ,,,, thanx for the input ,,, the whole thing just seemed odds as it was starting super one day and the next day it turned cold and uhh uhh uhh it had a belly ache.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Hey Chance...thanks for lifting the veil of mystique..glad you got it going..

[greg g]

Possibly also retareded your timing, making the starting problem even more difficult.

[wayfarerstranger]

no doubt !! hard to believe it can go from barely touching the key to fire it up to ain`t no way in hell i`m starting up .... ya just have to go thru every little possibility and most times it is something simple .....

[greg g]

Thats why trouble shooting flow charts were the thing before we got these computer data ports to plug the scan tool into.

The I think they were superior to the data ports in that in following the procedured outined, you also got hands on other items i the loop to make sure they were up to snuff. It was a procedure, not just a pull and replace excercise till the code clears.

So back in the day we called mechanics greasemonkeys, now they are called technichians, but really most of them dont have half the skills of the old time guys.

thess days its a job not a craft, ad as such the craftsmen are mostly gone.

And why a seasonal check to get your car prepared for winter usually included a tune up. when a tune up was more than a plug in and change of spark plugs.

Edited November 4, 2011 by greg g

[Dan Hiebert]

Dusting off an old thread here, arising from the continuing adventures of painting my daughter's Falcon. An off-thread topic you may think, but not so - because it means I had the ol' Dodge parked outside over the weekend. And it got cold. Once the Falcon's doors cured enough to handle them it was time to put the old girl back in the garage yesterday - when it was all of 8 degrees out. While some of our northern (further northern, anyway) brethren may scoff at that temperature as being insignificant and requiring only a sweat shirt - that's still the coldest its been here this winter, and probably the coldest the D24 has ever been out in. She did NOT want to start, barely even wanted to turn over. Coughed and burped a couple times, but ran the battery down too low and she gave up. So I exchanged the cold battery for a warm one, she turned over much better, fired up, but ran really bad for a minute or two, then settled down. I recall discussions in other threads about keeping the battery warm with a shop light, but I discovered I don't have any incandecent bulbs, just the CRLs, and they don't put off enough heat, at least not when its that cold out. Even tried pushing, but everything was sluggish and I could barely move the car, heck, it would barely even shift. It doesn't have a block heater, but I also discovered that one of my freeze plugs is seeping and I may just replace it with one of those coolant heaters that goes in the freeze plug hole. Searching the Forum didn't find much in the way of solutions - just that these old MoPars can be sluggish in a real winter, so just deal with it I'm chalking this up as an adventure.

[48mirage]

Another element that can contribute to that first hard cold start with the winter change is the gasoline. When I worked for Texaco in the winter time we would blend a little extra butane with the gasoline to increase the vapor pressure for the cold winter. I don't think this would be enough to prevent a start but it would contribute to a hard start, that is why I don't mind giving an engine a 2 second shot of ether on a cold morning if she doesn't want to go on her own.

[Young Ed]

Dan just think how much better cars start in the cold now! Imagine going through what you described on your way to work everyday.

[greg g]

NY uses oxiginated fuel in the winter (which starts in October and runs through Memorial Day) as defined by the NY EPA. They used to use methyl tertiary butyl ether which has since been banned because it likes to migrate into ground water when spilled.

These days they just chuck in more ethanol, which drops power and milage. Plus it attracts more moisture to the fuel tank, for which we add more alcohol in the form of dry gas.

[wayfarerstranger]

don`t know what it is , but from time to time it just won`t start ,especially if it hasn`t been drivin for a while , in the summer when i drive it a lot it never happens ?? something just isn`t right ,starter doesn`t seem to drag ? could be in the firing part of things ? , normally it starts right up with the turn of the key. everything on the car is newer parts , so something is not working 100% of the time coil , choke , condenser , loose wire ? could be the carb , float or faulty fuel filter sucking air ? who knows when it starts it runs perfect so seems you wouldn`t think it would be in the the carb? just don`t make sense . won`t start sometimes even with starter fluid . i haven`t checked the timing lately guess it could have moved some how ? just can`t pen it down .

[Dan Hiebert]

don`t know what it is , but from time to time it just won`t start ,especially if it hasn`t been drivin for a while , in the summer when i drive it a lot it never happens ?? something just isn`t right ,starter doesn`t seem to drag ? could be in the firing part of things ? , normally it starts right up with the turn of the key. everything on the car is newer parts , so something is not working 100% of the time coil , choke , condenser , loose wire ? could be the carb , float or faulty fuel filter sucking air ? who knows when it starts it runs perfect so seems you wouldn`t think it would be in the the carb? just don`t make sense . won`t start sometimes even with starter fluid . i haven`t checked the timing lately guess it could have moved some how ? just can`t pen it down .

My D24 does that, too. Matter of fact, all my old cars do that. I've heard that its in part due to these older caburetors and relatively low fuel pressure. The fuel bowls dry out after sitting for a while because they are not as air tight as newer ones, and it takes a "while" for the gas to wet its whistle. Problem was worse for me when I lived in the southwest where its hotter and drier than NY. "Down there" it only took a day or two of sitting idle, up here it takes a few weeks before I get the "delayed starting feature". Folks on this forum have mentioned using an electric pump either in line with the mechanical one or on its own that pretty much solves the problem. Turn the pump on for a few seconds to prime the carb before they crank the car.

[Young Ed]

My car and truck will sit from November to late march or early april and start without pooring gas down the carb or using an electric pump etc.

[Dan Hiebert]

Dan just think how much better cars start in the cold now! Imagine going through what you described on your way to work everyday.

I remember my parents trying to get the old Scout or Falcon started on the very few "cold" days we experienced when I was a kid growing up in Texas. Now I have remote start and only have to worry about remembering to turn the heat up and the defrost on when I park it for the night.

Did I mention that if there had been two more of me "helping" move those two old, cold, uncooperative cars - on pavement that was only recently cleared of snow - that it would have made a great Three Stooges short? No? Must have slipped my mind

[greg g]

Hey! Yuse guys got snow??? Ours all melted, about 55 today with strong sun. I did take advantage of the day to put the snow tires on my wife's car.

Almost got the P 15 out for a ride, saw a couple guys on their Harleys, thought I might chase them, but I decided to finish the tire job.

[Niel Hoback]

We went out for lunch today and the car said it was 57 degrees! It felt great! What snow?

[Don Coatney]

We went out for lunch today and the car said it was 57 degrees! It felt great! What snow?

WOW! You have a car that talks???

[Niel Hoback]

Yes, its called Onstar. When I drove it home from the dealer, a voice from the heavens said, "Hello, Mister Hoback, how do you like your new Buick"? Scared the crap outta me!

[Rusty O'Toole]

On the subject of flathead Dodges not starting when it is cold or damp... right after WW2 my father lived in Kapuskasing Ontario where he drove his 34 Dodge to work at the Kimberly Clark paper mill. In Kapuskasing 40 below zero is normal winter temperature and 60 below is not unknown.

His Dodge started every day without fail. He even boosted his neighbors Fords and Chevs.

He had a few secrets. One was a rebuilt engine with good compression. Another was he kept the engine tuned to the teeth (no dirty points or plugs) and having the factory Everdry spark plug caps. Another was using the thinnest oil available. Finally he had 2 6 volt batteries, on real cold nights he would bring the car battery in the house and keep both batteries behind the wood stove in the kitchen.

In the morning he would put the 2 warm batteries in the car and start on 12 volts, then quickly switch the battery cables to stock position. Let the engine warm up for a few minutes and be ready to go.

Chrysler products WILL start under any conditions if you service them properly and keep everything the way the factory intended.