Spring startup

[greg g]

Was gonna do it yesterday but some items intervened.  So about a half hour ago, got Kate woke up from her hibernation.  Couple squirts of gas down the carbs, set about3/4 choke, 1/3 gas pedal.  Cranked once for about 10 seconds got a couple pops.  A bit more prime, anorther short crank, she fired up and settled into fast idle.  Couple pumps on the brake pedal. Reversed out of the garage, opened the choke and did a 5 mile loop.  This car amazes me on how well she is made, and how she ages so well.  Lots better than me.

[Los_Control]

Just amazing how these old flathead's run.

While I've never driven it on the road as a daily driver, it has sat for many months without being started .... gas can tie wired on the front bumper & 3' of hose going from fuel pump to gas can. .... poor people have poor ways.

 

Just saying the carb is always dry .... I like to add gas to the carb, sometimes I cheat & spray some either into the air filter.

I use full choke, turn it over & it starts almost instantly .... very first thing to do is open the choke.

It starts fast with a choke, it will not stay running with a choke .... You start it, open the choke ... sits and idles fine. After not running for months.

I probably will not need to use the choke, if I ran it on some daily basis.

 

I had a 1965 elcamino with a 283, exact same way ... turn the key on a cold winter morning, started instantly with no choke.

My flathead 6 so far is the closest engine that ever matched that.

[Dan Hiebert]

This past weekend was simply awesome up here, low 70's, clear skies, and just enough wind to keep this year's spring crop of bugs down.  (Back in the 50's today.)  Anyway, after not running for almost a full year due to that radiator issue, I got the ol' D24 fired up just as "quickly" as ever.  Fuel bowl was, of course, dry.   So, I primed the carb with gasoline with a bit of MMO, 3/4 choke (I installed a manual choke many years ago), full gas pedal, four or five times over with cranking and she started right up, stumbled until the fuel pump got the carb caught up, and settled right down into that nice flat-6 burble.  Brought it up to operating temperature and let it idle for a while, since this was also the first start with the "new" radiator.  Can't quite drive it yet, I have a "field expedient" paint booth set up between it and the garage door for another week or two.  Only issue I had was that I did not tighten all the coolant hoses once it warmed up, and it leaked coolant once it started cooling down.  I remain impressed by how she always happily cranks right up every spring, managing expectations I usually assume I'm going to have a struggle waking her up, but that has yet to be the case.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Dan Hiebert

[RobertKB]

More than a spring start up. This is a rebuilt engine with about 2000 miles. I’ve had it for years as a spare. It had not run in at least 20 years. Figured it was time to run it again. Checked points and they looked good. Hooked up battery and power to the coil. Bit of gas down the carb. It literally turned over twice and fired. Ran a line from a gas container to the fuel pump. Ran for a minute because I didn’t want to overheat. Next, connect radiator and run for a while. Hard to kill an old flathead. Always stored inside but even so…………pretty good!

 

Edited May 9, 2023 by RobertKB

[rallyace]

Greg, you are ahead of me. I hope to get Daisy out of storage in the next few days. I, too, have had a few things get in the way of getting her out and about.

 

Mike