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1986 K30 - Rapid Learning

Get 'er cleaned up and solid.
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Yeah, I do. I bought it for my motorcycle but it is able to charge 12v car batteries as well (it takes a long time).

I have been wondering if I have a parasitic drain in the truck somewhere... or perhaps the battery is just on its last leg.
 
Try setting the choke at @1/2-3/4.
I forget this truck has a q jet carb, or edlebrock
 
There's no reason to hold the throttle open when you're cranking it cold. Kinda defeats the purpose of the choke. With the 66 I pull the choke full on, crank it for a bit to fill the float bowls, pump the pedal 6 or 7 times, and then crank it until it starts. Other than pumping the pedal as mentioned, I don't touch the gas. Once it fires off, I back the choke down until it's idling smoother. If it's jetted for lower altitude, you may be flooding it. Either way, they are definitely much harder to start when they've sat a long time and it's cold.
 
Only if the fast idle speed screw is adjusted correctly.
If the carb screws are adjusted opening the throttle while setting the choke helpsthe fast idle speed cam to set.
Then leave foot off the gas.
Also helps if you leave in neutral with clutch out. No clutch spring pressure slowing the cranking speed.
 
Wes Harden said:
Try setting the choke at @1/2-3/4.
I forget this truck has a q jet carb, or edlebrock
Click to expand...
It's an Edelbrock. I've played with having the choke at 1/2... just haven't found what makes this truck "happy" on cold starts yet.

mrk5 said:
There's no reason to hold the throttle open when you're cranking it cold. Kinda defeats the purpose of the choke. With the 66 I pull the choke full on, crank it for a bit to fill the float bowls, pump the pedal 6 or 7 times, and then crank it until it starts. Other than pumping the pedal as mentioned, I don't touch the gas. Once it fires off, I back the choke down until it's idling smoother. If it's jetted for lower altitude, you may be flooding it. Either way, they are definitely much harder to start when they've sat a long time and it's cold.
Click to expand...
I'll give your method a try. I really like your comment about flooding it if the carb is set for lower altitude, because it "feels" like the truck is happier with air. With full choke it tends to fire off and die immediately.
 
Wes Harden said:
Only if the fast idle speed screw is adjusted correctly.
If the carb screws are adjusted opening the throttle while setting the choke helpsthe fast idle speed cam to set.
Then leave foot off the gas.
Also helps if you leave in neutral with clutch out. No clutch spring pressure slowing the cranking speed.
Click to expand...

The PO gave me a CD-Rom that came with the Edelbrock carb. He also gave me a tuning kit that came with it. I think the CD-Rom has instructions for tuning and whatnot so I'm pretty excited to boot it up and play around.
 
With it being jetted richer, you should in theory be able to use less choke. The choke creates a rich mixture because you're dumping in fuel with the choke closing off the air flow. Since you already have a little extra fuel, you might not need to choke off as much air.

If you suspect you're flooding it, pull off the choke and crank the engine with the pedal mashed. Usually if you flood it, you can smell the gas.
 
They are easy to re-jet.
The fast idle screw has nothing to do with the jeting. But if it is jeted for low altitude, it probably 2 sizes to big.
My early bronco was Colorado delivered truck. I had it here in Havasu, mostly below 1k elevation. Had to run with choke on. It had #47 jets I tried #52 to rich took awhile but I found some #49 that was the sweet spot. I could drive to the local 8k elevation and the lake ar 500 feet.
Make sure to note what jets and rods you start with
 
I have been doing a little bit of research on the oil pressure gauge problem in my K30.

The symptom or problem is that the gauge is mostly pegged at zero at all times. However I have caught it showing ~15 psi a handful of times, which is obviously terrifying. There is a little bit of drivetrain noise while the truck is running but I guess I'd have expected the engine to seize on me by now if the oil pressure was really between 0 and 15 psi.

Anyway, I found almost nothing about the system in my Haynes manual. There is just this one wiring diagram:

PXL_20221111_183803059.jpg

So I'm trying to find the location of the oil pressure sender. Hopefully there is a way to test it here at home once I find it on the truck.

At first I found a lot of forum posts saying that it was on the back side of the engine near the firewall. I looked and couldn't find it there on my truck.

The other location I've heard of is near the oil filter, so I crawled under there just now and don't see anything:

PXL_20221111_185603293.jpg

Does anybody know where this thing would be?
 
The sender will be pretty obvious once you see it. It will screw direct into the block. Not the heads or intake. It could be on the front driver side of the block down low like your picture or top rear of the block near the distributor.

These factory gauges were never perfectly accurate. That engine may carry oil pressure in the single digit range once at operating temp. Totally expected for an 80’s truck.

As long as the oil pressure increases with rpm it’s ok. Rule of thumb I’ve had from GM is 10psi per 1000 rpm. Also, if it was truly low on oil pressure your lifters and valvetrain would start clattering like mad.

Are you running 5w30 in it or 10w30 in it? I wouldn’t use 5w30 on that one.
 
I've used this product in a couple of old engine and seen an increase in oil pressure afterwards. https://www.bgprod.com/catalog/engine/bg-epr-engine-performance-restoration/ Advance Auto Parts and Napa is where I've found BG products. They also make a great penetrating fluid.

You could see how the oil pressure looks with 10w40. Or some even run 15w40 Rotella oil that's marketed for diesels in old gas engines.
 
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