Starting Procedure

I agree with the 14-16 also, as far as what to prime with I always mixed the fuel based on temp if its dead cold pure gas once it hits 70° I use a 50/50 mix of gas/alky for the first start of the day, then a little less on subsequent starts.For every 10° in temp rise I go 10% down on gas so at 90° I would use 30/70 gas/alky.

In my opinion if you use straight gas when its hot out you will need so little to create enough vapor to start that its hard to regulate the amount squirted into the hat, it will either be too rich when when it first starts or it will dry up and stall before it picks up fuel from the injectors. If you use staight alky then just the opposite will happen you will have to add so much fuel to a cold motor to get enough vaporization that it will be hard to fire, of course if you are running a remote starter and cranking the motor at idle speed then I am sure straight alky works fine...I have just never had that luxury.

 

I'll chime in...I start my sbc on straight alcohol just about all year, except maybe in february or march. If it is 60+ outside, it starts fine on alky.

Our procedure is we turn on the fuel, turn on the mag, turn on the accumulator and prime the motor with alky. When i hit the button (a block mounted starter, on 24v), it springs to life. The bottle usually is used for 2-4 seconds until you can hear it pick up the pump and then he pulls the battery cables off, and away i go.

I've seen too many 'oops' on gas. it takes so little to flood the motor.

FYI, SMIII, .018 gap.

 

Greg, That's what we've been doing ever since we built the car except we were using gas. We sent the mag and coil out for service and will start using alky after initial start. Will also close the plug gap up some as suggested. Meant to come over and say hello at Sacto in staging but started rolling up. Thanks for everyone's help. Bob ( Dinosaur Racing )

 

Found out our 15 year old coil was junk. New coil,points and condenser. Along with that and a few other bits of info gathered from this site i think we should be good to go. Thanks for everyone's input,Bob.