Back when I'd just spray carb cleaner into the intake to start a cold engine

Used to do that on my '79 Plymouth Duster every morning in Wisconsin winters until a buddy told me I was just washing the oil off the cylinder walls. Now I actually check the choke plate and give the accelerator pump a couple of pumps first. Anyone else guilty of the old spray-and-pray method on a cold morning?

2 comments

2 Comments

henry_webb684d ago

My buddy Tim had a '78 Chevy truck with a 350 that wouldn't start below freezing no matter what he did. He kept a can of starting fluid in the glove box and would give it a good long blast down the carb every morning for like two months straight. Then one day the engine seized up on him halfway to work, and the mechanic said the cylinder walls were so dry that the rings basically welded themselves to the metal. Cost him a whole new short block and I still give him crap about it whenever we talk about old trucks.

paul1174d agoTop Commenter

Wait, was the mechanic 100% sure it was the ether that did it? Cause I've heard of people doing way worse to old 350s with that stuff and it never seizing on 'em. Seems like there mighta been something else wrong with that engine already just waiting to give out...