warm up time

[btoran]

sorry to bombard the board with questions, but i'm still getting used to the car, so here's another one.....

how long should it take for the car to "warm up" and the RPMs to drop to normal idle (+/- 1K rpms)?

my car is in the garage with temps about 60 to 70 degrees. when i start the car, the idle is high (about 2.2K rpms) and stays that way for a long time. i let it warm up for about 5 mins and then begin driving, but the idle dosen;t come down to about 1k rpm until after a good 10 minutes of driving.

is this normal? if not, where is an adjustment needed?

thanks.

[spidernut]

It should not take that long to warm up. Compare your fast idle speed against the water temperature. I know that my water-actuated choke was not working properly due to a plugged water port near the intake manifold. Once cleared, my car warms up enough in about 3-5 minutes of driving at 55 degree outside temperature for the choke to open completely and for the fast idle to drop. Once I see the temp gauge at about 145 degrees I'm idling at 750 rpm.

[RRoller123]

MY FI will run a little fast for maybe 10 seconds, then drop to normal idle speed. Water temp if left at idle takes about 10-15 minutes to get up to where the fan actuates (~195F).

[btoran]

mine is a 1975, so no FI. my fan actuates the second i turn the ignition key on. my water temp gauge moves only slightly from it's off position, but not by much. not sure if it's not working or the car isn't really warming up. previous owner said the choke was disconnected so i have not been using it to start the car. i did check it last night and it appears to be mechaqnically connected. what is the correct starting procedure with the choke?

[majicwrench]

I'm confused (happens a lot) so your car fast idles WITHOUT using the choke?? It should not. Water Temp should come up to half way=180 deg at least. You have some things to fix.
Choke, If car cold pull choke out all the way, pump a couple, turn key, when car starts push choke in about half way. I just take right off, not into wasting gas warming up. By the time I get mile or a minute I have choke all the way in.
A lot depends on how they are adjusted, they are all a bit different.

[steve8462]

a can of carb cleaner might help the moving parts around the choke along with the other fixes quoted above

[RRoller123]

The fan comes on immediately? Sounds like it may have been hard wired to bypass a faulty radiator temp sensor? Not sure about the earlier cars, but this is a common PO wiring problem on the later ones.

[btoran]

I have a switch that turns on the fuel pump. After i flip the switch and pump the gas pedal once, the car starts right up. immediately, every time. Like it's a brand new car. because the PO told me the choke was bypassed, i have been starting it this way. When i first got the car, the idle was set too low and it would stall. My local garage cleaned and set the carb, so i think the carb is ok. Is there a fast idle setting someplace that needs to be set?

[georgeramos]

Yes.

Here is a weber carb tutorial I found and have followed a few times with some success...

http://www.redlineweber.com/html/Tech/c ... _best_.htm

My fan was hard wired also, I didnt mind it too much but its always best if everything is operating as it should. in my case it was a faulty (NEW) thermal switch that caused the PO to bypass it.

[btoran]

followup: the mechanic adjusted the carb again, this time with the help of the shop manual i purchased. the fast idle is now much slower than before and properly drops to slow idle within 2 mins. thanks for the help.