I think people get a little to skiddish about the cliffords and cold weather. I didn't have any choke on the Valiant and I started and warmed up with no problems even in 0* weather. Now when it started getting into the 30's in the mornings I would change aircleaners and put a snorkle on to pull heated air from the headers but that was it. I did have a manual choke on the BBD but I could not get the one on the holley to work so I simply removed it. I have a 390 Holley for sale now in the for sale section.

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Here is a Clifford intakethat I added heat to, and a little infoabout it.

To make a long story short the engine was a fuel hog under 10mpg, and would not idle with out footing it under 35 degrees.

When using headers on a street car in cool climates, one needs manifold heat of some kind.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

I disagree, the headers threw off so much heat they kept my intake very hot. I ran the Valiant with out manifold heat for 5 years.
Oh yea one more thing I used to do was put a sheet of metal accross the top half of the back side of the radiator to keep cold air from blowing accross my intake and carb.

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I ran an electric choke Holley 390 on an unheated Clifford manifold. The manifold heated very slowly and the choke would open long before the manifold was up to temperature. The idle speed, as confirmed on the tachometer, would continue to rise as the manifold warmed. I had to raise my base idle speed to keep the engine from stalling when the choke opened up. I had to do seasonal adjustments on the choke to have it 1/2 way acceptable. All this in the South San Franciso Bay area.

I now run the same part number 390 Holley on an Offenhauser intake manifold heated by the stock exhaust manifold. Now the choke stays on too long. Once the car has run for a minute or two the choke is no longer needed, but it stays on keeping the idle speed too high. If the engine is off very long the choke cools and comes on when it's not needed. The problem is I can't adjust the choke lean enough to cure this and still have it start cold.

The factory knew exactly what they were doing when the exhaust heated the intake manifold and put the choke thermostat on the exhaust manifold. Exhaust heating of the intake is absolutely the way to go for an engine that needs to operate in cold weather. Without it the mixture has to be excessively rich which washes oil off the cylinder walls, wearing the cylinders and rings and contaminating the oil.

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Joshua

Josh, thats exactly why I removed the choke all together. It would take forever to open fully and would come on whenever it felt like. With out the choke the mixture isn't rich, it's your idle mixture.
I would go out in the morning at 1* pump the gas once, the car would fire up almost instantly. I'd hold the rpms at 1500 for one minute and drive away.

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I like being able to get in my car. Start it, kick it off fast idle and drive away. Usually about 5-10 seconds. If your car will idle with a cold manifold and no choke then the mixture is excessively rich.

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Joshua

I am running the 500 Edelbrock AVS in my Dart. It ran sorta OK out of the box. I had to tweak the settings to make it run right. But my slant is not stock and the carb had issues straight from the factory. Once it was set up, this carb is the best that I have run. I am also using a water heated base plate for manifold/carburetor heat, works just fine.

I have also ran the SuperSix with a BBD, both the slant 6 and 318 versions. They had problems, mostly due to worn out throttle shafts. Most BBD's are worn out now, they need to be rebuilt by qualified carburator shops and have bushings installed on the throttle shafts. The local parts store reman does't have that done.

I also ran the SuperSix manifold with a Autolite 2100, the 1.08 version. This requires an adapter plate, but I believe it to be the best 2v setup on the slant. I also got the best mileage with this setup on the Dart. Around 24mpg with a worn out engine. I am going to be running this setup on the Duster with a rebuilt stock engine. We will see how that works out.

A choke was invented for people like you that don't have the patience to give it a full minute(sometimes 2 minutes when really cold) to warm up, and don't mind wasting fuel with a choke system that works marginally well like my old 465 cfm Holley. In the minute(or two) I acted as the choke for the Holley the headers threw enough heat that it would run well enough to get me to work with out having an excessively rich mixture. I spent a ton of time and a good bit of money getting that engine to work and work VERY well. The fact is a choke is not a requirement for cold starting and warm up it is a convienience.
My Volare's choke works correctly as you described.

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Oh?

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Below is the formula I was shown to use from a carb shop. IDK it may be the same thing I am not to good at this math stuff.


For example

390 (4v Holley 4 barrel) ( 390 x 1.414) would be = to a 551 2v carb

500 (2v Holley 2 Barrel) (500/1.414) would be = to a 353 4v carb


IMHO I like a 500-2v better unless the engine is truely making power above 5600rpm and even then it needs the right gear/convertor combo to make good use of it. With some modifications I can get matching MPG from the 500-2v compaired to the 390-4v.



Jess

I used to start mine up at sub zero temperatures with no choke at all, plate was even removed. Pump it twice, start it up, hold the idle up for about 30 seconds, and go. 390 Holley, Offy intake, no carb heat either, car had headers in it.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

70valiant and Slantzilla,

With your short warm up and 4 barrel setups, what kind of mileage did you get?

Thanks,

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Aggressive Ted

http://cid-32f1e50ddb40a03c.photos.live ... %20Swinger


74 Swinger, 9.5 comp 254/.435 lift cam, 904, ram air, electric fans, 2.5" HP2 & FM70 ex, 1920 Holley#56jet, 2.76 8 3/4 Sure-Grip, 26" tires, 25+MPG

I would get 16 around town and 22 highway(lock up 904, 3.23's and 235/60R14's). I have a heavy foot around town, loved to hear it rumble.

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