I have a 1964 with a 289(?) I6. It has a manual choke that I use when it's cold out. In a broad sense, the choke has 3 settings: All the way out, 3/4-1/4 of the way out which raises the idle RPM, and 1/4 of the way out.

When I start it in the morning I pull the choke all the way out, start the engine, then after 4-5 seconds I push it about half way in. Then I let it sit for 4-5 minutes then push it to 1/4 of the way out and leave my house. After about 4-5 miles down the road I push the choke all the way in so it's no longer active.
I've been doing this for the past 2 winters and have "perfected" my method. If I don't let it warm up long enough the engine will sputter if I don't give it an excess amount of gas. Am I doing this right?


I've heard that sputtering means the air filter or fuel filter is dirty, but I don't think that's the problem because it only does it when the engine is cold.
Carbureted engines with manual chokes aren't very common anymore so I'm not all too familiar with them.
Any insight will be much appreciated.

Blargfish is good with carbs. Few others on here are as well, but I've only dealt with a few. PITA if you ask me. Sounds like you've got it worked out though. I bet that with a tune and some new jets you'd only have to use it to get her started. Should definitely do some trial and error, and let us know the results.

Yes. You're doing it right. Also its better to warm a car up under load. Regardless of sputtering.


Once it's warm it's fine right? If so you're doing fine.

This sounds about right. Chokes are used to help the engine warm up, just like on small engines. I'd say if the method is working, it's fine. Don't fox something that isn't broken.

Also, typed this on the phone earlier today, so I left out a couple things I wanted to add.

It's also cool to drive the car with partial choke until it begins to warm up. Once you begin to feel a change in the engine behavior, push in the choke. Or just watch your temp gauge.

Most carbureted engines are cold blooded. It usually takes a couple miles under normal driving load to begin to become smoother. But like I said earlier, it's definitely better for an engine to come up to temperature under load than it is at an idle. So start trying that too, if you haven't.

This post was edited by OldAndyAndTheSea on Feb 12 2014 05:44pm