TheSamba.com :: View topic - How long do you guys warm your cars up for?

Wed May 04, 2005 1:53 pm

Having never driven a carb'd car before, I'm used to getting in and driving away. However when I do that in my Square, it'll stall whenever I come to a stop, for the first 5 minutes of driving or so. Then it idles at about 700-800rpm and it's fine.

What's you guys's start up process?

Wed May 04, 2005 5:42 pm

If the choke pull-off's are working properly on stock carbs, you should be able to drive off as soon as the oil light is out.
Now if these are NOT stock carbs, I don't know.

Wed May 04, 2005 5:52 pm

Volks, we can't read minds here...explain what your engine is! Stock with Solexs or modified with Webers/Dellortos or ???

For my automatic, as soon as the fast idle drops to normal idle (a cold engine start) then she's ready. Of course, if the engine is warm there's no problem. Man I love fuel injection!

For my baby with dual Dellortos (no chokes), I hold/rev the engine until it can hold an idle by itself, then she's ready to drive. Depending upon engine temp, it can be anywhere from 30 seconds (70ºF outside temp) to almost a minute or longer if it's very cold outside.

Wed May 04, 2005 6:06 pm

Sounds like the chokes are either bad or misadjusted.

Every carbureted Type 3 I have ever bought had the chokes and the choke linkage set wrong.

Wed May 04, 2005 6:45 pm

Hey guys, sorry about the lack of info, I wrote the first post kinda quick.

The engine is, as far as I know, stock, with dual-carbs - Delorto 34Bs.

Like I said, the car has to be driven for about 5 minutes or so before it'll idle on it's own. And starting off initially it can feel "chuggy" and bogged down.

Wed May 04, 2005 9:42 pm

Long enough to hook my seatbelt and find reverse...

Wed May 04, 2005 11:52 pm

What is this "warm up" thing you speak of? j/k

Usually 45-60 seconds .. unless it's cold and the engine won't keep running by itself, then I'll warm it up a bit longer. In either case, I baby it for the first couple miles.

Thu May 05, 2005 6:23 am

My car has a stock 1600 with dual Weber 34 ICT's. I'll let it warm anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes, depending on how long it has sat and cooled and the ambient temperature. Naturally, when it's at operating temperature, I start it and go. If the temperature is cool, say 45 degrees or less, I need to tap the throttle a few times to keep it running, but then it settles into an idle. The throttle response is not the best, but I baby it until it's really warm anyway. Heck, I baby it after it's warmed up! I hope this helps.

Thu May 05, 2005 8:11 am

So where would I need to start looking to correct this problem?

Thu May 05, 2005 2:05 pm

Do your dellseven have chokes? If not then you are kinda screwed to the time it takes. I pull away in my stock single carb when I hear all the pistons firing.

Fri May 06, 2005 7:05 am

Big Fat wrote: So where would I need to start looking to correct this problem?

How does it run when it's warmed up?
If you don't have chokes you pretty much just tune them so they run well when they are warmed up. When they're cold you just deal with them.

If you don't like it you can get some carbs with chokes(pretty much stock carbs) or install fuel injection.[/quote]

Fri May 06, 2005 7:35 am

josh wrote: install fuel injection.

hallelujah....

Fri May 06, 2005 10:52 am

josh wrote: Big Fat wrote: So where would I need to start looking to correct this problem?

How does it run when it's warmed up?
If you don't have chokes you pretty much just tune them so they run well when they are warmed up. When they're cold you just deal with them.

If you don't like it you can get some carbs with chokes(pretty much stock carbs) or install fuel injection.

She runs great when warmed up - I just always assumed something was wrong since it wouldn't idle cold. Guess I'll just learn to deal with it... shouldn't be that hard. :)

Fri May 06, 2005 10:57 am

My car would act in a similar manner when cold until I learned to tune and balance my carburetors. The idle mix adjustment seemed to make a big difference in the cold idle and power at low RPM's. "Your mileage may vary". As I wrote earlier, it can still cough a bit during the first minute or so of driving but settles down as the engine warms.