<<<<<<<<got it good and hot, after which i parked it for about a half hour
on the street while running some errands. when i came back, the car would
crank, but wouldn't catch for the life of me, sounding like it wasn't
getting any gas>>>>>>>>>
Hot soak is a multiple whammy. As
Chris H. pointed out, the underhood
temp on a hot day after the engine has been shut off for 15 or 20 minutes
can be considerably higher than the temperature was when running and
underway. This has several effects:
the engine internal clearances are
reduced, increasing friction; the starter motor itself tightens from the
heat and can't spin as fast; the increased load and draw from the starter
combine to reduce the voltage available to the ignition system; and to top
it all off
you're trying to start an engine whose
carburetor has boiled fuel out of the bowls, upsetting the mixture greatly.
Making sure the starter and battery are up to snuff will help, but the 440's
in particular can benefit greatly from
insulating the carb from manifold heat. You can get a number of different
kits for this, they are avialable in the Jeg's or Summit catalogs. I like
the one which uses interleaved layers of aluminum plate and fiber gasket.
You can get 1/2 inch
or 1 inch high stacks. I wouldn't use the 1 inch because it's not needed and
could cause hood clearance issues.
You may have to trim the aluminum
plates to clear linkages or other obstructions, as they are larger than the
base plate, like radiating "fins".
The insulator kit will make a big difference on your 68, and will make a
phenomenal improvement on the later
440's with the ThermoQuad carb. Back when those cars were current models we
used to fix hot-soak hard
start gripes by lowering the float level
slightly, but that's like wearing gloves
to write with a leaky pen in a way, and
besides it can cause slight leanness under normal operating conditions.
Better to eliminate the root cause, excessive heat transfer to the carb.
Good luck.
Michael
Roger and Michael in San Diego
67 Crown Convertible "Moby"
73 LeBaron Coupe "La Bomba Negra"
56 sedan
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