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Fixed: Carburetor Fuel Evaporation Causing Hard Starts When Cold

betzgb

Contributor
Sr. Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2009
Messages
184
Not sure this is worthy of a tech article, but the forum has been so helpful over the years here is a small attempt to pay it forward with a longstanding problem I have now solved - perhaps I am late to the party...

I drive my carbureted bronco on weekends. With today's modern fuels I find the carb bowl is typically dry and it takes 20 seconds or more of cranking to get the carb primed and start the engine. I got into the routine of popping the hood and spraying a little starting fluid in there to skip the long cranking process. But I am lazy, and wanted to put an end to the routine of opening the hood and removing the air cleaner to spray starting fluid or gas. I just wanted it to start right away. I have run Edelbrock, Holley, Street Demon and all had the same issue. I now run a Quadrajet and it is hands down the best performer for me - just tired of the hard cold starting problem that all carburetors have including the q-jet. I run a mechanical fuel pump for the reliability and silent operation compared to a noisy fender mounted electric pump (Holley red pump) I ran in the past.

In talking to my latest superhero Bruce at https://www.carburetorsunlimited.com/ he let me onto a trick he used with his son's Jeep. I took a few minutes to draw it up below and basically is it a small quiet $50 frame mounted pump that is only activated with the start circuit. The design of the Precision E16010 pump allows for the fuel to prime when activated by the starter circuit but pass through fuel after it has stopped running and the mechanical pump is carrying the load. The cold crank now takes just a few seconds and I kept the rest of the setup as is. Hope this helps anyone looking to maintain the mechanical pump setup but fighting this cold start problem along the way.

Epump to Carb setup.JPG
 
Last edited:

bmc69

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Jun 11, 2004
Messages
11,915
yep..that's about the only solution I'm aware of. Short of going with all-electric fuel pump solution, I mean.
 

Pa PITT

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 15, 2005
Messages
11,283
Loc.
Stephenville TEXAS
SO WHEN YOU GO TO START YOUR BRONCO. You turn the key to on & Pause for say a couple of seconds & then turn key onto the activate side of the ignition switch.. & Bronco starts up save some start time & Saves heating up the starter..
& YOUR MANUAL Fuel pump continues to pulls the fuel thru the electric pump . & Veroom your good to go.
 

TX-ZACH

Newbie
Joined
Sep 27, 2021
Messages
287
Loc.
Chappell Hill Texas
Had heat issues and dry bowls last summer and thats when I added a 1" phenol spacer under the carb. For $25 and 30min labor is by far the best mod to improvement yet.
 
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betzgb

Contributor
Sr. Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2009
Messages
184
SO WHEN YOU GO TO START YOUR BRONCO. You turn the key to on & Pause for say a couple of seconds & then turn key onto the activate side of the ignition switch.. & Bronco starts up save some start time & Saves heating up the starter..
& YOUR MANUAL Fuel pump continues to pulls the fuel thru the electric pump . & Veroom your good to go.
Actually the electric pump is only activated when the key is in start mode so no need to pause when the key is in the on position. Just start the Bronco like normal and it just works. You never even hear the e-pump as it is only on when your starter is engaged then the mechanical pump takes over from there.
 
OP
OP
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betzgb

Contributor
Sr. Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2009
Messages
184
Had heat issues and dry bowls last summer and thats when I added a 1" phenol spacer under the carb. For $25 and 30min labor is by far the best mod to improvement yet.
That's a great point to add! I have super tight hood clearance so wasn't an easy option in my case.
 
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