Recently brought my 1990 Chevy Caprice back from the dead (from a known failed fuel pump really) back in december, had to pay professionals to do it cuz everything else was broke, at the same time if I remember right (trying to keep straight what was done on each vehicle) i'm pretty sure they also changed the distributor cap, plugs, and wires as part of a getting it back to running state. I love driving it again minus the poor MPG (compared to my saturn which needs a clutch/too cold to do til summer) but it's not a happy winter starter.
1990 Chevy Caprice, 305 small block chevy v8, ~160,000 miles, which doesn't want to ever start below 0, and just gave me the hardest starting experience at +12. It just acts like it's "nearly" catching but never quite gets there, I commonly smell fuel almost like its flooded but a TBI shouldn't be, and the only way I got it to light after 120 seconds total of cranking was violently mashing the footfeed which again I should never have to do while cranking it.
This confuses me because my pickup is nearly identical, which is a 350 small block TBI has been starting to -10 without a complaint really. (haven't tried that one below there yet)
If I can plug the block heater in it starts easy the problem is sometimes I have to park where there isn't one. I already learned the hard way it wouldn't start at exactly 0 (3 degrees is a horrific struggle just barely catching) or anything below and don't even try anymore. But it was predicted to be 12 so I thought it'd be safe to park it on the street yesterday. Exactly what happened is monday-into-tuesday night it dipped to -10 below. It was back to 5 degrees by noon, I try to start, no start. I smack forehead with palm realizing the cold probably soaked the engine block and this white car covered in snow isn't going to get much solar gain. But 12 hours later the rising temperature is 12 degrees in the middle of night AND IT STILL WOULDNT START at midnight. 18 hours later, right now literally just this second still at 12F outside it just BARELY started after 120 seconds of cranking.
I'm not sure if thats just how long it would take the air to raise the subzero temperature of the block to above freezing, or if it's actually getting WORSE which is a bad sign because i'm totally tapped out having spent too much on car repairs. Since the distributor/plugs/wires i'm 90% sure were replaced that leaves me things like a computer, the OBD-1 system isnt throwing any codes about obvious sensors out, the fuel pump and filter is new and it's been running the last 6000 miles happily to school and medical out of town since Dec (I have to drive alot) so it's not something that's been obviously different... i'm just alarmed cuz either large blocks of iron really do take 18 hours to rise from -10F to +1F (for how hard it started) in +8 to +12 degree air or something else in the car is degrading and I better start to have an idea of what before I get stranded. >_
PS: Just to be clear, I warmed it up 20 minutes, then turned off and on to restart - restarted in under a second with no problem like usual. So this is more grasping to figure out one of three things, 1) is that just how long it takes for an engine block to warm that much if it was supercold, 2) are TBI SBC's in general hard winter starters below freezing, and 3) what I might watch out for possibly degrading in the future. (like I had the engine computer crap out of my pickup and I now wonder if I should be preemptively playing parts cannon to replace it in the caprice during summer due to being 30 years old or if that's silly )
1990 Chevy Caprice, 305 small block chevy v8, ~160,000 miles, which doesn't want to ever start below 0, and just gave me the hardest starting experience at +12. It just acts like it's "nearly" catching but never quite gets there, I commonly smell fuel almost like its flooded but a TBI shouldn't be, and the only way I got it to light after 120 seconds total of cranking was violently mashing the footfeed which again I should never have to do while cranking it.
This confuses me because my pickup is nearly identical, which is a 350 small block TBI has been starting to -10 without a complaint really. (haven't tried that one below there yet)
If I can plug the block heater in it starts easy the problem is sometimes I have to park where there isn't one. I already learned the hard way it wouldn't start at exactly 0 (3 degrees is a horrific struggle just barely catching) or anything below and don't even try anymore. But it was predicted to be 12 so I thought it'd be safe to park it on the street yesterday. Exactly what happened is monday-into-tuesday night it dipped to -10 below. It was back to 5 degrees by noon, I try to start, no start. I smack forehead with palm realizing the cold probably soaked the engine block and this white car covered in snow isn't going to get much solar gain. But 12 hours later the rising temperature is 12 degrees in the middle of night AND IT STILL WOULDNT START at midnight. 18 hours later, right now literally just this second still at 12F outside it just BARELY started after 120 seconds of cranking.
I'm not sure if thats just how long it would take the air to raise the subzero temperature of the block to above freezing, or if it's actually getting WORSE which is a bad sign because i'm totally tapped out having spent too much on car repairs. Since the distributor/plugs/wires i'm 90% sure were replaced that leaves me things like a computer, the OBD-1 system isnt throwing any codes about obvious sensors out, the fuel pump and filter is new and it's been running the last 6000 miles happily to school and medical out of town since Dec (I have to drive alot) so it's not something that's been obviously different... i'm just alarmed cuz either large blocks of iron really do take 18 hours to rise from -10F to +1F (for how hard it started) in +8 to +12 degree air or something else in the car is degrading and I better start to have an idea of what before I get stranded. >_
PS: Just to be clear, I warmed it up 20 minutes, then turned off and on to restart - restarted in under a second with no problem like usual. So this is more grasping to figure out one of three things, 1) is that just how long it takes for an engine block to warm that much if it was supercold, 2) are TBI SBC's in general hard winter starters below freezing, and 3) what I might watch out for possibly degrading in the future. (like I had the engine computer crap out of my pickup and I now wonder if I should be preemptively playing parts cannon to replace it in the caprice during summer due to being 30 years old or if that's silly )
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