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Holley froze again joys of winter

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nigsbro

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Well here we are yet again winter up on us and my Holley carb freezing up until the motor gets warm, spluttering at lights trying to keep her running until she's warm. I have on her headman headers edelbrock inlet so no way of using heat off the headers and not just that this is killing the gas mileage too, has anyone had this problem if so how did you solve it?
Every winter for the past 12 years i thought i will solve this before next winter but hell here i am again
 
my edelbrock seems like its doing the same thing. but i havent really ran my truck for about 5 months so i could be bad gas or build up in the carb.
 
Assuming you don't have a choke problem...

I had the same problem with mine. Let me guess, you no longer have the factory thermostatic air cleaner?

What was causing my ploblem was the throttle blades icing up and choking the engine. The fix is reserecting the thermostatic air cleaner. I used an old EGR solenoid to reserect mine and wired it to a switch and indicator light (so I don't forget to open the damper) on the dash. When the switch is on the damper closes and pulls hot air off the top of the headers. Works pretty good.

Another soluition mat be a heated spacer between your carb and intake. They use engine coolant to speed up the heating the carb. I've seen them before, but I don't remember where.
 
mine is cold blooded too!

The edelbrock on my 79 C10 frosts right up in cold damp weather--it can freeze up even on a 50 degree day if the humidity is high--the edelbrock and carter AFB style carbs seem to be the most problematic in this type of weather--mine will stall,load up,run rich,and perform rather poorly for at least 10-15 minites in the weather that aggravates the problem--I've put the original air cleaner(GM) back on,but still need to get the aluminum foil hose that goes to the "stove" on the exhaust manifold,and I need to hook the EFE valve back up,(heat riser valve)I need to figure out which thermal vacuum switch ran it,and get it to work,that will probably help the most since it directs the exhaust back under the carb thru a passage in the intake manifold and heats the base of the carb for better fuel atomization-The aluminum adapter needed to install an edelbrock on a stock GM intake blocks the carb from getting much heat--this kills gas mileage too-- -I suspect that many vehicles that have the EFE valve working have plugged passages in the intake,and never get the full benifit of the heat that it needs to run right..since I might sell the truck,I want it to run good,so the new owner wont have to drive it with both feet lke I have too--it has a hand choke too--whoever buys it better not let the wife drive it!!..:crazy:

I've seen a base plate for 4 barrell holley carbs with passages for hot water from the heater hoses that go under the carb on ford FE motors,like 390's--one of theese might be a godsend--I saw one at a junkyard but didnt get it soon enough--its gone now--I wonder if they make one of those "electric" base gaskets with the heated grid in it for a four barrel??--I've seen them on 2 barrell carbs in GM cars in the 80's---:thinking: That might work better--bet they arent cheap though....
 
Ditto

I'm in the same boat on my '78. Holley and a K&N 5" open filter. Am seriously think of building a housing for it and making a heat 'stove' off of my headers just for winter use. The neighbours love me trying to keep it running early in the morning while it warms up enough to pull away. But they're not truck people so they'll never understand...poor souls! lol
 
I remember a bolt on heat stove for headers in my JC Whitney cataloque . Blots on to the header with u-bolts , hose runs up to the air cleaner :k5: :k5:
 
Its not the cold,its the humidity!

It does it worst on cool,foggy,rainy damp days below 50 regrees the worst--tonite its 13 degrees,and clear as a bell--my truck runs great when its dry,(and the plug wires are good)its a moisture related thing,frost builds up on the throttle butterflies in the carb,and snuffs out the motor every time you try to idle it--its very annoying and dangerous at times-(dry gas helps prevent this too--but I try not to use a lot of it-not good for the engine)-I'm going to put in a new 195 degree thermostat in place of the 180 that was in there when I swapped the motor in--that might help some too,and I'm going to rig up the EFE valve and air cleaner tomorrow if possible--I bet the restriction of the stock air cleaner and the "hot air pipe" will kill about 25hp and lower the mileage a little,but at least it will stay running in lousy weather!!:blush:
 
Holley still froze

Hi all
thanks for your ideas im still sitting there for about 5 to 10 mins till she warms up before i can pull off, the choke is working ok just the body of the carb forms ice inside and out till heat rises to melt it I have been told there is a 12 volt heater plate to cure this problem but over no one wants to pull there fingers out there *** and try find one, Some one must have one on there truck or know where to get one from?
 
I seen those "electric gaskets!)

Gm used those heated base gaskets on the "camel humper" sixes like my truck had originally--but they are a 2 bbl,vari-jet,looks loke a Q-jet base cut in half--I'm almost sure I've seen 4 bbl ones on cars at the boneyard,I'm thinking Olds or Pontiac might have used them--AC-DELCO sold them thru GM dealers and parts stores ,Rochester made some of them,and maybe some aftermarketers like Fel-Pro might make them also--it would be an easier fix to just put a new base gasket on,and plug it in(you need a timer to shut it off or something like a thermostat I think,cant leave it on constantly)--better than building stoves ,pipes,and resurecting all the OEM emission stuff....I think a working heat riser is more important than the hot air pipe,but having both is the ideal....and all 3 with the electric base gasket would just about eliminate any "freeze ups"!...:crazy:
 
I was in the same boat - icing on the butterflies after going to an open element and dumping all the emissions stuff. I was going to bring back the factory air cleaner, but I've gone to TBI. I'm not sure if the problem will be better or worse this year. I still have an open element on the TBI, but maybe the idle-air control will compensate if there's a little ice... I guess I'll find out.
 
Some ideas

How about blocking off the radiator while it sits warming up at your house.

Also what about an engine block heater. My parents were living at 11,000ft, and they had to have them. You need the good kind that uses the freeze plug.
 
cold blooded carbs

I'd like the convenience of a block heater,and having heat right away,but I dont pay the electric bill(all the more reason to get one!:thinking: )--I dont think it would go over too well when the bill comes due!--and my truck sits for days at a time,cant leave it plugged in constantly, and blocking off the radiator does help some--but I've come close to boiling over with other trucks using carboard to block the radiator,and had to pull over and yank it out when the temparatures rose rather suddenly a couple of times(the weather can change pretty fast around here!)..

I think the best way is to restore the OEM heat riser and air cleaner and hope its warm enough to make it run good..Its strange that the carb just being cold and damp can make an engine run so poorly--I can stand and watch it and as soon as it gets warm enough to melt the frost on the carb,the motor smooths right out and purrs like a kitten--until that point it stalls at idle,hesitates,and runs rich and unevenly--its like a switch being turned on sometimes!!--some days it never gets warm enough to make it run good,and it wastes a lot of fuel..I love my diesel for this reason--once you get it started,it runs smooth,stone cold or fully warm makes no difference--I'm trying to get a newer truck with EFI,so I wont have to deal with this problem anymore!!--
Carbs are good for warm summer driving--in the winter I think they "gas wash" a lot of engines to death in the cold weather when the choke stays on too much..:crazy:
 
Winter sucks here too

I went out and bought a nice rebuilt 750cfm q-jet off ebay to replace my Holley. I went up to the local salvage yard yesterday and bought a factory air cleaner, and I am going to use a 1 1/2" pipe about 4" long and take to angle brackets to hook it to the head.
 
Froze again

Thanks to all of you for your ideas i have tried to get heat of the headers using a stove but still nothing if anyone knows where to get a 12 volt heater to go under or above the carb that would be great as i have had no joy this side of the pond on saucing one.
 
Ford had some water cooled (heater coolant routed thru it) carb spacers that were also part of their EGR system. 2 bbl versions are pretty common. I've seen 4 bbl versions but they were square bore only, no spreadbores that I know of. The 4 bbl version is not so common, can only recall seeing one.
 
Don't know if this will help but, when I lived in Alaska a lot of people put card board in front of the grills on there vehicle to keep the cold air from blowing into the engine, thus fore allowing the engine to heat up faster and maintain it.
 
Running great when cold now

HI all
I just thought you all might like to know got the freezing carb sorted out by getting a piece of billit alloy and machining it to fit between the carb and manifold this has 6 diesel heater plugs fitted in to it on a 2 min warm time off a button so now I just start the truck and hit the button to heat the carb seems to be working well so far no more ice
 
Nigsbro, Can you give us all the details on how you did this? It sounds to me like something that someone here could produce in some quantity and resolve this problem for a lot of people!

Bryan
 
Mastiff said:
I was in the same boat - icing on the butterflies after going to an open element and dumping all the emissions stuff. I was going to bring back the factory air cleaner, but I've gone to TBI. I'm not sure if the problem will be better or worse this year. I still have an open element on the TBI, but maybe the idle-air control will compensate if there's a little ice... I guess I'll find out.
Click to expand...

My Holley TBI ices up if I don't use the factory thermostatic air cleaner.
 
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