Help needed with warm up injector

On my car, when I swapped the black w/beige connector from the injector to the AAV, and the black w/orange-white stripe from the AAV to the injector, the black w/orange-white stripe seemed to fit quite well. However the black w/beige is way long to be hooked to the AAV. I wonder if someone didn’t splice some extra length into this set.

The problem with that theory is the black w/beige wires are behaving the way a black w/beige set is supposed to behave – i.e., always on – and the black w/orange-white stripe set is behaving the way a start up injector set is supposed to behave: turn on for 3-5 seconds when cranking a cold engine, then go dead.

I have an idea to do the cold engine cranking test with the injector connectors at the same time on both sides, with each side hooked up to a separate voltmeter or test light. If all is well, both sides should go dead simultaneously.

He turned the screw back to rich a bit. But when I drove away it was popping under very light acceleration so I went back and he gave it another twist. That ad hoc setting is where the screw still sits.

What that sounds like is a good old fashioned 1-bbl Ford or Chevy straight-6 pickup truck engine. Nonetheless, you’re right that it will be good for the health of the engine to restore these systems to their proper configurations. Luckily the seller let the car sit for five years and only drove it sparingly from December 2011 to mid-February 2012, and I have driven it almost not at all since then.

It’s good that at least one of these components was behaving itself.

Once I get it running smoothly by ear I’ll throw on the Colortune. I am aware that tiny twists of the idle adjusting screw have large effects on the fuel-air mixture, so I’ll use a light touch.

When I bought the car the fuel pump relay was missing and the connector was jumpered. In this configuration the fuel pump was always on, and I could hear it. My man Tim at Select Electrics has fixed this problem – as well as dealing with two other missing relays and another that was non-functional – and now I don’t hear anything with the key in “run” but the engine not running.

I think my cold start injector circuit is behaving properly, it just wasn’t hooked up to the injector on the passenger side. However, I might hook up a test light to the circuit at the relay/fuse board to monitor its behavior while driving. The irony is that I don’t think I even need the cold start injector in the SF Bay Area climate, at least not at this time of year. Many hotrodders around here drive carbureted cars with no chokes.

That’s a quick and easy test. I’ll give it a try.

The DPO (Dreaded Previous Owner) strikes again. I hope not to be one myself, but I probably will.

 

One week update: I got under the hood with my Colortune yesterday. I found the passenger side idle adjusting screw needed more than two full clockwise turns to get the Colortune into the blue. I also applied the Colortune to the driver side. It started out on the lean end of the blue range, but I noticed there was a miss so I turned the screw clockwise till the miss went away. BTW I was doing this tuning at about 2000 rpm, which I maintained by jamming a 3/4" socket (1/2" drive) between the valve cover and the throttle linkage.

The results were good. For the first time I'm getting a tire chirp on the 1st to 2nd shift. The standing start is still very sedate, but I expect that's what happens with a 293 cubic inch engine fighting 4000 lbs. I am going to mess with the base timing today and see if I can improve on this.

On the bad news side I find that, with the cold start injector not firing all the time, I am having a major hot start problem. My theory is vapor lock in the lines between the distribution blocks and the injectors. Backing up my theory is the fact that I am able to overcome the no-start by swapping the always-on Bosch connector from the AAV to the cold start injector. That gives that side a fuel boost, sufficient to get the engine running. But what's the cure? Hopping out of the car to pop the hood and swap the wire is not a great solution.

 

Hi Brian. If you mean the hot start problem, yes I did fix it, with two new fuel accumulators. This job also required the assistance of the local fire department, because it required me to lay under a stream of gasoline while struggling to plug fuel lines to fittings. My left ear filled with gasoline and after a few minute of this it started to hurt tremendously. I didn't know, all I had to do was put the ear under a water faucet and flush it out. Now I know, and it only cost $600 to find out.