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carb for street use-manual or electric choke?

mtrdrms

mtrdrms

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This may be a stupid question but I am looking to buy a new carb for my 69 chevelle and I dont know weather to get a manual or electric choke. Would this car even have electric choke from the factory? Is it hard to upgrade? Are there advantages to either? Thanks. Andy
 
being from a cold state i would elimenate the choke.you aren't gonna drive that car in the winter are you??i have no choke on my truck,i turn it over a minute then hit the gas then turn it over again and it starts. :D no butterfly at all.i did the same thing with my 74 monte. :D
 
With a well tuned electric choke, you don't have to worry about setting the choke for the right amount of time, running rich after you warm up a bit, forgetting to set it or release it, etc.

It's really easy to upgrade, just bolt on the carb and run ONE wire to the appropriate location.
 
good point. So then I guess it wouldnt matter which one I choose? I guess Ill get the manual because it is cheaper.
 
Yeah, I used to feel like a real jack @$$ when I'd drive 10 miles wondering why my truck was spewing black smoke. :doah: It's hard to get into the habit of the manual choke when it's not your DD.
 
the choke on my holley has two wires connections

anyone know where they go?
 
The wire? Any switched power source. I ran mine to the windshield wiper circuit. As long as it's on when the truck is running, and off when it isn't.
 
two wires??

The "second" wire might be a ground wire,to ensure the choke is grounded good,on your Holley carb..I've seen some older electric chokes that had 2 terminals for the 12V hot wire--one had a resistor wired in,to make it open slower in cold weather,if the other "direct" one made it open too quickly..

I have an edelbrock 1405 carb on my 79 C10--I bought it cheap used,and didn't notice some "hot rodder" took out the choke butterfly,the shaft,and all the associated "fast idle cam" and linkages off!. :doah: :mad: ..

I put a butterfly I got off a junk AFB I found ,using a long 1/4" bolt as the shaft,and rigged a manual hand choke cable to it,so I can at least have a choke when its cold out..sucks not having the fast idle though--so far I havent found a junk edelbrock to rob those parts from..too expensive new,and the AFB stuff is different.. :mad: --but I only need choke about 2 minites unless its frigid out anyway--

I used to forget the choke was 1/2 to 3/4 closed sometimes,but since gas went up to 3 bucks a gallon,I rarely forget to open it now!--in fact,I only use it if it wont run without it being on..it increases gas milage,but you nearly get killed when it bogs out when its cold,pulling into traffic.. :doah: so I let it run 2-3 minites in my yard before driving away.. :crazy:
 
I would definitely go with an electric choke, even though they usually cost more. Much more convenient!

With that said, I thought I would throw this out. Feel free to ignore this as well if not interested. I have a Holley Street Avenger 670CFM with Electric Choke and split fuel inlet tubes I would like ot get rid of. It has less than 500 miles on it, and was on my truck before I sold it. I bought it for my truck, which was driven a few miles a month literally, to Home Depot mostly. It is a square bore (not a spread bore like a Q-Jet). It ran great on my 400 SBC in the truck, and got decent gas mileage considering. It has vacuum secondaries, which definitely helps with mileage.
I am going with a Holley EFI system on my 383, so I no longer need to hold onto this carb. If interested, maybe we can work something out.
Joshua
 
I could be interested. I have a chevelle with a Holley 600 on there now and its a bit of a dog (and leaking from the throttle). How much do you want for it? Where are u?
 
Sorry for the Hijack:

Does an electric chole need to be wired to something that continuously gets power as long as the truck is running? how does it know when to open? If it doesn't have power, does it stay open, or shut...... (I'm wondering if it would be a poor idea to run one on a toggle switch setup)? What size fuse should go on the wire its run to?

Thanks ahead of time for helping me with my noobie questions,
James :bow: :bow: :bow:
 
78Suburban said:
Sorry for the Hijack:

Does an electric chole need to be wired to something that continuously gets power as long as the truck is running? how does it know when to open? If it doesn't have power, does it stay open, or shut...... (I'm wondering if it would be a poor idea to run one on a toggle switch setup)? What size fuse should go on the wire its run to?

Thanks ahead of time for helping me with my noobie questions,
James :bow: :bow: :bow:
Click to expand...
I think anything over 5A would be too much. When the choke gets power, a coil starts to heat up and the begin to open immediately. They go real slow though, and you can adjust the choke pull-off to make it happen sooner or later as desired. The only bad part is that if you leave your truck in the on position for a few minutes(for some reason) before starting it, the choke will be wide open and hard to start. As soon as they cool off, they'll close again. You could run one off a switch, though I don't see much of a reason to. The choke will stay open as long as it has power. If you remove power with the truck still running, it may close slightly, but the heat of the motor should keep it open too.
 
I would definitely go with the electric choke.My Edelbrock 1407 has one and it's super simple-one ignition hot wire and one ground.Loosening three screws lets you adjust the let-off and after that you just forget about it.
 
Just dont wire to the battery. You'll be wondering why your car/truck doesnt start in the morning!! The temp is mild here so all the vehicles Ive had I didnt bother with the choke. Sometimes I'll sit with my foot on the gas at 1500 RPM's for a minute but thats it. Even my all original except for newer Holley carb 63 Mercury I just pump gas pedal twice turn the key and it fires up and idles smooth.
 
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