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454 engine hard to fire up

aknight_sa

aknight_sa

1/2 ton status
Joined
Oct 14, 2005
Posts
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Location
Saudi Arabia
good day guys,

does everyone who has a big block 454 face the problem of hardly starting up the engine every day even if the weather is not hot?

with me its more like there is no gas in the lines if i leave the car for more than 24 hours.. so i have crank it up for some time before it starts up..

any ideas?
 
My 350 does the same thing. I usually can give it a couple of pumps and it will fire right up. Unless it has been sitting for a day or two, that is all it takes. If it has been sitting, it might take a bit of time to crank up.
 
GMC500 said:
since the weather in Saudi Arabia is getting colder nowadays
check your carb chock if it is working properly
Click to expand...

well... this happens to be in the summer as well.. (when the temp is >100F)

now the temp is around 80F ... which is pretty cool
 
Is the vehicle carbed or FI? If FI pumping the throttle won't do anything. If FI you might have a bad fuel pump relay which will take longer cranking before it will start since the oil pressure switch will need to see 4psi of oil pressure before that fail safe system will work.
 
Both my trucks are like that -- both are carbed, and I imagine the gas has drained back down the fuel lines and it takes a while for the fuel pump to get gas up to the carb. :dunno:

-- A
 
Even if carbed it shouldn't take a long time to start since there is a decent amount of fuel in the carb bowl. Most times in a carbed situation it is a tune-up issue.
 
mine is carbed as well... and i do feel that the fuel went back down the fuel lines..

and when the engine starts there is too much fuel in the air as if it was flooded.
any suggestions on how to tune it?
 
aknight_sa said:
mine is carbed as well... and i do feel that the fuel went back down the fuel lines..

and when the engine starts there is too much fuel in the air as if it was flooded.
any suggestions on how to tune it?
Click to expand...

My crew cab is having the same problem, I got tired trying to crank it so I just quit driving it. Not a good solution to the problem on my behalf but when I have money, I'll get it tuned up so it starts up when cold.
 
4X4HIGH said:
Even if carbed it shouldn't take a long time to start since there is a decent amount of fuel in the carb bowl. Most times in a carbed situation it is a tune-up issue.
Click to expand...

Mmm. You've heard the sixpack run; it does miss a little (I think the wires are a bit skanky) but once it fires it's pretty solid.

OTOH, I don't run them every day... they do generally get run every coupla weeks, anyway...

-- A
 
With a carb the choke adjustment is very critical. If the choke isn't set correctly then when it's cold the choke may be closed too far and then it won't start and it will also start to flood making matters worse.
 
As Scott said, there is no reason a carb should have a lack of fuel.. well, quadrabog anyway, we'll leave side-hung Holleys out of it... fuel draining back in any part of the system wont affect whats in the bowl...

as mentioned, generally it is an ignition or choke issue...
 
ryoken said:
As Scott said, there is no reason a carb should have a lack of fuel.. well, quadrabog anyway, we'll leave side-hung Holleys out of it... fuel draining back in any part of the system wont affect whats in the bowl...

as mentioned, generally it is an ignition or choke issue...
Click to expand...

$*@^*#$@ The choke on the K5 was set by some redheaded monkey years ago, so that I can understand. But the sixpack has a nice new choke for the nice rebuilt carb I just put on when Scott rebuilt the motor.

Guess I should run it by the carb guy... aargh. Other than this he seems to have done great work...

-- A
 
others are suggesting that the problem is from the Fuel pressure Regulator...
can you tell me where its located?

anyway, where can i find any information on tuning up the manual choke?
 
If you have a carb, you don't have a fuel pressure regulator. These are used on FI systems to control the fuel pressure to the injectors. Carbs don't use them, since the pressure is so low the needle and seat control the flow into the bowls.
 
aknight_sa said:
others are suggesting that the problem is from the Fuel pressure Regulator...
can you tell me where its located?

anyway, where can i find any information on tuning up the manual choke?
Click to expand...

And if the choke is manual, I think you tune it by pulling the cable in the cab ;)

IIRC there are a couple kinds of automatic chokes: thermal, that have a little bimetallic strip coiled up on the side of the carb (mine's like this: heat from the intake manifold makes the coil curl or uncurl) or electric, wherein there's a wire going to the right-hand side of the carb, and I've no idea how those work ;)

-- A
 
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