z28 NyC

I havent been running a carb setup for long but I hear that they hate the cold. Iam I gonna have trouble starting my car up every morning ?

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

No, when properly set up and adjusted, they do just fine in the winter. I drive mine year round.

z28 NyC

Cool, iam glad to hear. That I was afraid of somthing they call "iceing" that supposed to have a bad affect on carbs in the winter.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

The stock factory air cleaners have a snorkel with a vacuum operated, temperature controlled valve to bring warm air up from the exhaust manifold when needed. People who have problems with carb icing have, in their infinate wisdom, eliminated that system. The problem is further reduced with the 10% ethanol gas we've got these days.

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

Tim, you drive your 300+ HP camaro in COLORADO in the winter? hooboy, you are a brave man. Sand bags and studded tires?

Just make sure you have a choke, and it's setup correctly. The thermac that 57 was talking about is a nifty feature which makes life considerably better, but if you have a good working choke, you can just crank up the idle speed and let it idle before driving it, and try and plug in the car when it's REAL cold.

Air_Adam

I have a dual feed Holley, electric choke, and a open air cleaner with no heat to it. Even an Air Gap intake, lol. Its never had any problems starting at -50*C last winter and warming up just fine, and I don't see it being much different this winter.

Five7 is right... an air cleaner with heat provisions, like the factory ones have, is better in cold weather, but it isn't totally necessary. Like I said, I've never had a problem. I do plug my car in when it gets below -15*C at night though, and my fast idle is around 1200 ice cold, and about 1600-ish once its got a bit of heat in it.

EvilCartman

iTrader: (1)

Oh no! cold weather and a carb! What do you think people had before fuel injection came out?

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Drive it year-round in Colorado - yes. Brave, not really. Studded tires, yes. Studded tires on right now, no, but a storm is coming in tonight so they might be on tomorrow morning.

The choke isn't a cure-all for no thermovac. An off-idle dead spot is very common with q-jets without the thermovac in cold weather after the choke is open.

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

Interesting.... Wouldn't that be like using a cold air intake though? Cold air in a relatively warmed up engine?

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

If the cold-air inlet(s) goes past a thermovac system, you're going to get the warm air to the carb.

z28 NyC

Iam i have no emmision on my engine its just the carb with a air fiter, soo guess the cold air is doing more good then harm. . . . ? I do hear guys talking about how cool days at the track are the best, what do you guys think ?

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

I assume you're talking about an open-element type air cleaner. They are good for the amount of air they flow, but are bad in just about every other way.

When the weather is cold, the lack of the warm air system will produce the dead spot I was talking about. It can be severe, especially when the engine is partially warm so that the choke is off or mostly off, but the engine isn't warm enough yet to properly vaporize the fuel in the intake manifold.

When the weather is warm, the lack of a snorkel to get cool air from outside of the engine compartment causes the engine to injest warm under-hood air, the opposite of what you are saying is a good thing.

So, open element air cleaners cause more problems than they solve, especially in our cars with their hot under-hood temperatures and emissions-oriented carb tuning.

Jammin'Trey

What should I do, I have headers and an open element. I am planning on getting a block heater for sure,,, I have a 750CFM holly with elec, choke.

Air_Adam

See my post above.