Folks, thought I would start a new thread on this topic. My 226 starts fine cold, starts fine when hot right after you turn it off, but let it sit for 10-15 minutes and the starter has to turn for about 10 seconds before it will catch. Finally fires, black soot out the tail pipe, gassy, then levels out and runs fine again.

I have rebuilt the carb several times, set the float to the directions, new coil, new vacuum advance, tried ethanol free gas, basically tinkering on it for about 6 months and nothing helps it.

Any thoughts on what I might could try?

 

Set the float lower than the directions.

The float settings were written when leaded gasoline was the norm. Now we have alcohol in our gasoline, or at least more higher ends. The density of todays gas is lower than when your carburetor was designed and built. Simply put, your float doesn't "float" in todays gasoline as well as it did in 1950's gasoline. The advent of pressurized computer controlled fuel injection has changed the formulation for gasoline since carburetors no longer are a design consideration.

After getting your motor up to temperature take the air cleaner off and turn off the truck. Wait a few minutes. I suspect you will see gas dripping down inside the carburetor as the carb heat soaks. I experienced this in the 37 sedan. I ended up setting the float at least 1/4 in lower than spec. Since then I have experienced the same thing in my 53 sedan, with the same solution.

 

My first thought would be the fuel is getting too hot under hot soak conditions. Make sure you have the proper spacer between the intake manifold and the carburetor which is there to help keep the carb and fuel cooler. If all that is in proper condition, you might try running the fuel level slightly on the lower level of the spec to try and keep the hot fuel from percolating out of the main discharge down into the manifold. This all assumes that you have no engine temperature issues when running since you do not mention any.

 

Got it so where the guidance in the setup is 3/16 with no gasket, maybe try 3/8 or even 7/16?




I have the correct manifold gasket and I am not overheating. I am running a 180 stat and when I shot it with infrared get somewhere between 180-190 depending on how hot it is outside, I am in Atlanta.

I also add lead substitute to the gas.

 

I am thinking maybe a 1/4" or so but not much more or you will develop a lean hesitation as the throttle moves away from the idle circuit to the main discharge.

 

I had a similar problem with my 54. One day I am staring at the engine pondering what might be causing it to start hard when hot. I looked at my battery cables. No it couldn't be them, could it they were all made new when it painted the truck. And that was just ..... 17 years ago.

Time flies! So I took each cable off and used steel wool and sand paper to clean the copper ends . Started the truck, went for a drive, came home , shut it off, and it started right up. And it hasn't given me any hot start problems since.

Your problem very well could be a fuel or carb problem, or it may be your cables are not letting enough current through to start it when the engine is hot.

 

Good thought Abe especially if it was cranking slowly when hot. But his description of the issue sounds like a classic hot fuel issue to me.

 

It's turning fine, starter is rebuilt and all cables good and tight. Sometimes the only way I can get it to fire is floor it.

Will try setting the float lower and see if that helps. I am going to try 7/16 from the bottom.

 

Yes, good point. I overlooked the black smoke, and gassiness conditions.

 

I still say a jump from 3/16" to 7/16" is way too much in terms of the amount of fuel in the bowl. If you move to 7/16" don't be surprised if you run into other performance issues that you didn't have before the adjustment.

 

hey Cougar Isnt that a 1/4 lower than spec as you suggested in the first post?

JB

 

I will start with 1/16 increment changes and report back. Maybe even measure from top of float also to make sure my float isn't strangely out of shape.

 

That is exactly what I was trying to say. The spec is 3/16" so I thought adding 1/16" to make it 1/4" was plenty of lowering without drastically affecting driveability. I certainly did not mean to add 1/4" to the existing number. I spent 20 years working in the Fuel Systems Engineering Lab at Ford with more than half of that working on carburetors so I know what changing the fuel level does to the fuel/air ratios of the carb. If the small change doesn't help, we need to look at another way to keep the heat off the fuel during hot soak.

 

Moved the float down to 1 3/8, right at the outer limit on the original rebuild directions. Started fine as usual, took it on a 5 mile hard run to get it hot, parked it, 15 minute soak. Same result, hard start. Idled it for a minute, took the air cleaner off, no sign of gas or dribbling down into intake. I let it sit for 10 more minutes, started fine. Not sure on next steps. Not sure if it matters, but my air cleaner has been modified for a paper filter so I don't have an oil bath.

 

This kind of behavior is a real common complaint with E-10 gas. The only sure-fire solution is an electric pump. On the 226, you've got that huge stove in the exhaust/intake manifold system, happily percolating your fuel after shutdown. Your fuel pump likewise is absorbing heat from the block. The deck is stacked against you with the stock system.

If you think you have it bad, c'mon up to mile-high altitude, with 95 - 100 deg temps. Lower atmospheric pressure, higher temps = fuggedaboutit