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Starts without choke when cold

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bluemiata90

bluemiata90

Jedi Trainee
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I resently finished (almost) restoring a TR3a that I bought earlier this year. The previous owner had the carbs rebuilt. The question I have is that in the mornings or even after several days, I go to start the car and with the choke out, it is very difficult to start, if I leave the choke in it starts right up and runs smooth. This sounds like a great thing, but does it mean that the carbs are running to rich. The engine seems to run smooth when cold and does kick down a little in RPMs as it warms up, but I've never had a car that acted like this when cold, that uses a manual choke. It's almost like it has an electric choke on it (which it doesn't). The plugs don't seem to be blackened. Any ideas????
 
For what it's worth, I just got the linkage I need to allow the choke ("enrichment") mechanism to work but have not installed it yet and have not used a choke for 2+ years. Mine starts poorly when cold, right away when warm. Can change day to day with just a few degrees difference (eg from 50 degree morning it takes a while; on a 65-70 degree morning, it fires up quickly)
 
My 59 TR3A will start on a warm day when the air temp is 70 degrees F or above with out the choke on. Your plugs will turn sooty black rather quickly if it is running rich. Make sure to check at least one plug from front and one from the back just in case one carb is running richer than the other. When it is cold out or it sits for a couple of weeks I always need to engage the choke. After the engine warms up it will restart without the choke everytime as long as the engine is still warm.
 
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