Originally Posted By: PimTac
To the OP, back in the carburetor days a engine would start up fast because the driver floored the pedal when turning the key. You had to give them some gas otherwise it wouldn't start. Today's fuel injection took away that part of the equation. Your oil was pumping very quickly after the motor started so I wouldn't worry.
I was taught that a properly tuned carb should start without your foot on the gas.
If the car has an auto choke, you usually engage it by pressing the gas pedal once and then releasing it before starting. Also, on a typical fixed venturi carb flooring the gas activates the accelerator pump, which "squirts" gas into the intake to help prime the engine.
Usually when you set the choke(whether automatic or manual) you do engage the fast idle cam which will take the normal idle to 2K or so(depending on the size/construction of the engine) to help the engine while it warms up(fuel injected engines increase the cold idle also). In general, though, flooring the accelerator while cranking is counter-productive. On a cold carburetor/engine getting ENOUGH gas vaporized for the engine to start is always a problem. "Choking" the carburetor increases the vacuum in the venturi, which helps gas to vaporize(I'll also mention that the only carbureted car I have now and regularly deal with uses other tricks to richen the mixture rather than increasing the vacuum with a choke valve). Letting in more air by opening the throttle doesn't really help you.
The only time with a carb where you want to HOLD the throttle while cranking is if the engine is flooded. The reason for this is that in a flooded condition, the mixture is too rich for the plugs to light, and by opening the throttle you are allowing in more air to get the mixture closer to stoichiometric and hopefully get something that the engine can light efficiently.
