rsuddath

I am replacing my carburetor with an Edelbrock Q-Jet.

Both a hot air type choke and an electric choke carburetors are available. I have an Edelbrock manifold with provisions for the hot air choke but there is no need to use it.

Does one type of choke work better than the other?

I have had problems with the hot air type in the past such as difficulty getting the car out of cold idle.

How does the electric type work? Does it need both positive and negative leads?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

glen242

If your car is still set up for a hot air choke - stock heads, intake w/crossover - I would stay with the hot air.

That said, I have an electric choke, because of non stock heads, intake. It requires 1 hot wire to function. Grounding is taken care of through the included wiring harness.

Why did you have problems getting the car out of cold idle before, when using the hot air choke?

When working properly, either type is ok.

rsuddath

Actually, it was originally an electric choke, then Bubba installed a new manifold and apparently a different carburetor with a hot air choke.

I am having trouble locating the original wiring, things have been cut off and taped and it is hard to tell what the original color of the wires was. It looks as if the proper wiring is through an oil pressure switch to prevent premature choke warming if the ignition is left on.

I don't know why I have had problems with the hot air choke in the past. I assume that it was simply an adjustment problem. I would set it one way, and it would never fully dis-engage, keeping the car in a cold idle all the time. More importantly, it would not let the secondaries open at WOT. When I tried to adjust it the opposite direction, it was hard to start when cold and stalled a lot (not enough choke). Could be that there was not enough hot air to warm it (blocked tubes?) someting else?

Thanks for the advice.

I am still not sure if one of the set-ups is better than the other (hot air vs. electric). The price for the carburetor (Edelbrock Q-Jet) is the same with electric or hot air choke.

lars

glen2 is correct: the hot air type choke works very well, so if you have provisions for it, and all the parts (both of the tubes), I'd keep the hot air choke. Getting it to come off of fast idle is a simple adjustment and setup, and you'll need to do this same adjustment to an electric choke as well - the emectric won't solve this problem if you don't adjust the 3 choke adjustments correctly.

Electric chokes work great if you have aftermarket heads with no heat crossover provisions; if you have a heat riser blockoff manifold gasket; or if you have an intake manifold with no hot air provisions. There is only one wire that goes to the electric choke on a Q-Jet. It grounds itself through the carb body. For this reason, you want to be sure to remove the round choke cover gasket when you install an electric choke. Otherwise, the electric choke will be isolated from ground, and it will never open.

Corellian Corvette

rsuddath - CRC makes a product called "LECTRA-MOTIVE" Electric Parts Cleaner.

You can get it any any auto parts store. It's AWESOME for cleaning wires, harnesses, alternators, etc. It's similar to carb cleaner but safe on electric parts.

Get some of those blue shop towels and squrt the Lecrta-motive onto them. Then rub all your wires down with the towel. You will be AMAZED how well they clean up and you'll be able to tell what colors your wires were. It's been a tremendous help to me when solving electical problems.

Also cleans gunk out of the harnesses, etc. and can be used to clean grease, oil or whatever off parts where carb cleaner is too harsh.

72rdstr

Most of the electric chokes I've seen actually have a grounding pad that is under one of the cover screws. No need to remove the gasket..
:blueangel: :chevy

rsuddath

Thanks for the advice.

I installed the carburetor with an electric choke (#1904). The deciding factor was trying to make sure that the car would pass CA smog (I don't know whether it matters but apparently that was the way it was originally).

Does anyone know how much current the electric choke draws? I connected it to a loose wire that was activated by the ignition, approximately 14 ga. Will this be adequate? Does the electric choke draw current constantly or does it cycle?

When I shut the engine off while it was still cold, it did a lot of dieseling. Is there some sort of simple adjustment for this?

It seems as if the consensus of the posts was that I should have gone with the hot air choke, but I could not figure out why, other than the setup was already there. In my case, the car was set up and ready for either type of choke.

The fact that there seemed to be some old posts from members wanting to convert to electric, and that there are commercial products to help people convert to electric (but none for the reverse conversion), makes me think that electric may be superior.

Thanks,