engine and drivetrain Fun with Cold Starts!

[Ebruckbauer]

Its cold in Michigan right now (30s). I want to start my stored 1600 up though, so that I can change the oil, something I should have done a few months ago. The idea was to drive it every so often when the roads were salt free so that I could slowly begin fixing it up for summer. Problem is, it wont start. The wires look good, I changed the plugs (Bosch Platinum), and the old plugs looked good as well. The engine cranks, but very slowly, even when being assisted by a jumper battery. The block is ice cold, and I have a heat magnet attached to the oil pan, in what seems like a vain attempt to warm the engine through the oil. Should I just wait till it gets warmer? I am afraid the longer it sits, the oil will turn to goo, and I will have more problems on my hands than just an oil change. [/i]

[Rob7502]

Everything is just to cold not only does the oil freeze but all the tolerances in the motor shrink when it gets that cold. So either put the car in a garage and find a heater or wait till it gets warmer. Next time winter comes change to a lighter weight oil so that you wont have this problem.

[Ebruckbauer]

So have I done any damage by cranking the engine with these tighter tolerances?

[Mike Self]

2. Is it a 6v 1600? If so, you're gonna have problems until you warm it up...that's why they went to 12v.

3. If you're serious about this, remove the battery and charge it up in a warm place--batteries lose a significant percentage of their power when cold.

4. Remember it takes 30 or so seconds of cranking to pull gas from the tank to the carb. You can help the process (presuming you have s stock 1 bbl Solex) by removing the air cleaner top and locating the brass pipe that pokes thru a rubber grommet in the bottom of the air cleaner housing. This communicates directly with the float chamber. Take a small amount of gas (just a couple of tablespoons) and carefully pour it down the pipe, thus filling the float chamber. Wiggle the accelerator linkage until you see gas squirting from the accelerator pump nozzle in the carb throat, then with the throttle open, give it a blast of starting ether...betcha it'll start then!

good luck

mike

[Guest Anonymous]

... and replace the platinum plugs with copper.

Cheers,

Ray

[c.d.iesel]

ONLY DURING YOUR EXTREME COLD DRIVING-

change the oil and filter to 10w/30 or 10w/40 -

but keep revs down below 4000 untill 20w/50

oil is resumed in warmer weather.

drain and refill your stale gas if it's been in the tank longer than 10 months - stale gas will not start !!

adjust the valves to 0.008" for winter / 0.006" for summer

clean and adjust the carb chole flap and adjust

the cold high idle to 1,200 -1,500 rpm