I've been running my Catalina's engine at least once a week, cranking it over and letting it run for 15 minutes to keep everything moving. I usually do at the end of the day when I'm finished working. Once it starts, it runs great. I've noticed that it cranks but it won't start unless I floor the gas pedal 2-3 times, and then hold it about halfway down while cranking. Is this a carburetor being out of adjustment or is that fairly normal for a carburated engine that's sat for a week? Once it's warmed up, it will fire right up when I crank it over.
This comes under the category of ah, millenials. 🙂
Pumping the gas a couple of times before starting is S.O.P. with a carb. Flooring the accelerator sets the choke while the accelerator pump squirts some gas into the cold intake to assist starting since vaporization is poor at low temperatures. Once the engine warms up those measures are no longer needed and in fact if you pump the pedal you might flood the engine with too much gas. The choke will not close until the engine cools off if it's working correctly.
About the only thing I see possibly as a problem here at all is whether your fast idle is working. Idle speed should be high when starting cold and it will rise as the engine warms up. You then "kick" the idle speed down by briefly blipping the accelerator pedal. If you're having to hold the gas pedal down partway until the engine warms up your fast idle needs to be adjusted.
Remember there is no electronic control with a carb (aside from some later ones that have a feedback circuit to control mixture for emissions). Everything is adjusted manually with screws and and controlled mechanically with springs, levers, and cables.
I actually didn't know that was standard operating procedure on carbureted cars, lol. My understanding was that the suction from the pistons turning over is enough to suck gas fumes out of the fuel bowl in the carb and they ignite, somewhat like more modern one-pull mowers. I guess now that I think about it, you do need to push the rubber fuel adder 2-3 times before pulling the starter cord on one of those.
From what you described, all actually seems well, once the car is running, cold or not, it will continue to run without me adding gas through the throttle. I did notice the idle kick-down feature a couple weeks ago, I tapped the pedal a bit not long after I started it, and it wanted to die, but it picked back up. About 2 minutes I tried it again and it dropped the RPMs without dogging down. I didn't know that was actually a thing, I've never heard anybody talk about that as a kid up to you mentioning it just now, haha. I always wondered how carbs adjust for idle engine speeds cold vs warm, EFI does that on its own by dropping the fuel quantity.
I'm Scotty's age so spent a lot of time with carbureted cars that work this way, and in fact still have a few here. For us old timers, when getting into a car like that even these days we instinctively know what to do without having to even think about it. I can see where it would be a bit baffling for someone that has only ever been exposed to fuel injected vehicles that handle it all automatically. (BTW, carbs sense temperatures using a temperature-sensitive bimetallic spring that mechanically operates the choke and fast idle cam if you're wondering how it's done without electronic sensors.)
If the carburetor is clean, you may do the adjustment or just replace it.
A lot of carburetors did come with electronic chokes. There's a 12 volt, ignition on wire running to the spring coil on the choke housing that heats the coil so it opens the choke plates. A lot of Weber and Toyota vehicles had these electrically operated chokes in the 70s and 80s.
It's a popular addon for a lot of carbs since heat tubes fail and old choke springs get weak. I just installed an electric choke on one of my old barges last month.
ahh,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, the good old cars!
no emission controls, no electronic gizmo's to screw up
all ya need it fuel, air, and spark!
beam me up scotty!
