Technical Tips for starting quickly with dried out fuel bowls

So I can't start up and go for a run as often as I should. It just grates on my sensibilities to have to crank the starter so much, plus pump the gas pedal, etc.
If you have a trick or two that work for you, bring 'em in here. I don't mind having to open the hood to prime something. Your results on splicing in electric fuel pumps in the tank or just outside the tank are also welcome.

 

keep a gas can handy, and the bottom half of a soda/beer can. Pinch the edge of the soda can, to make a little spout. Pour some gas from the gas can, into the cup you made from the soda can. Remove the air cleaner lid, pour some gas into the vent tube. Put the air cleaner lid back on (to prevent fire) and start it up. If it doesn't work the first time, do it again.

or add an electric pulsing type pump in line with the mechanical pump, with a push button to operate it.

 

Another way to try is to loosen the wing nut holding down the air cleaner, giving you some room to simply drizzle a small amount of gas down the stud. That way you don't have to take the air cleaner lid all the way off or disconnect any hoses or pcv valves.

 

I use one of those syringes I bought at Tractor Supply they use for farm animals. I fill it with fuel and fill up the float bowl through the vent
from the needle pointed syringe.

 

So, after all these years, every time someone has to pour gas down a carb they have to improvise an old water bottle or a coffee can or something else inappropriate for the job? I know I've seen plastic bottles with a curved squirt straw that you squeeze the bottle and the liquid comes out. Where do you buy one of those?

 

What Squirrel said. One of these makes it even less a hazard spilling gas on the paint.
Query; nozzled squeeze bottle

 

YES!, Thanks, I went and answered my own question. Amazon, of course.

 

I left gas in my little squirt bottle like that for a couple weeks, and the tube swelled up and it didn't work any more.

But yeah, that would work, too. I forgot all about the squirt bottle, since I sold the T.

 

What type of carb? Quadrajets are known to have leaky bowl plugs allowing the bowl to loose fuel when sitting. The fix is to exopy them.

 

If gas eats those plastic bottles, I’d think those small metal oil squirt cans would work out

 

I had a similar problem on my stock willys Coupe. The fuel would dry out back to the tank and the mechanical pump had trouble picking it up. I installed a rubber hand squeeze pump from an outboard motor in the fuel line. Just pump the gas up to the carb and there you are. No messy bottles.

 

We have added a few of these, wired up with a push button. The stock mechanical pump can pull fuel through, so no need for T's. Works great.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/atx-e8090

 

I like that! Should be pretty easy to fill the syringe and you can see just how much fuel you're putting in thru the vent tube.

But I've got to ask . . . What kind of farm animals have you got that run on gasoline?

 

what scrappy bunch said--done on many cars--works great!

 

"So, after all these years, every time someone has to pour gas down a carb they have to improvise an old water bottle or a coffee can or something else inappropriate for the job?"

It's much better to fill the float bowl, so that the engine can run for long enough to get the fuel pump working to deliver fuel. Also less wash down of the cylinders.

The problem with these bottles is that as the temperature rises, the air inside expands, forcing the fuel out. When it cools, air is sucked in and the cycle continues. You can leave the cap a little loose, which creates other problems.


If using an outboard motor fuel bulb, it should be on the suction side of the fuel pump because I don't believe they are supposed to have pressure on the supply side.

Some old fuel pumps had a manual "bail" you could work a few times to prime the carb.

 

You don’t say what you have or the carb but an in-line electric pump or a bypass style is best. If you don’t have 100 point under hood engine a hose on the vent tube up thru your air cleaner for a squirt bottle makes it ez but it is open to the atmosphere and unfiltered.

 

I meant that the thread title question to be sort of generic to carbs in general.
But my Chevy truck, with a SBC 350cid, had an Edelbrock when I got it. The previous owner definitely had the same problem with the fuel evaporating because there were pink stalactites growing everywhere inside. I cleaned the carb up and it ran okay but I decided to sell it and get a new age, not so traditional, Holley Street Demon 625 because of the thermoplastic body. But it dries out, too. This is just a fact of life when a carb sits for 2 or 3 weeks in Texas.
I'm going to have to take a good look at it and figure out where the vent hole is and try some of the suggestions.

 

I use one of these with a 1/4 ID hose over the outlet. At least I think it is that size. The hose will slide over the bowl vents on my AFB and 2GC carburetors. No spills down into the throttles or intake. The one I use is clear plastic. Works great every time. The plastic has not shown any damage over the year or so that I have used it.

 

Electric fuel pump. Switch the ignition on, wait 5 seconds. Start it up. No fuss, no muss.

 

"Electric fuel pump. Switch the ignition on, wait 5 seconds. Start it up. No fuss, no muss."

Aw, where's the fun in that?

 

I’m lazy, I just crank the starter, that is the odd time it sits for more than a day. The best solution? Drive it more


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

so...if you squirt into the vent tube, it goes into the fuel bowl instead of down the manifold and possibly into the cylinders?...is this correct?

 

Yes.

Sent from my Trimline

 

Yes

 

I agree, electric pump. The fun is you can get in and go in less than a minute, instead of opening the hood, putting gas in a bottle, finding out you used all your gas in the mower so you have to go get some, takes 15 to 30 minutes, and you still haven't got the damn car started!

 

...thanks, that's what I always thot, my buddy disagreed with me on this and just squirted some into the carb...

 

Old oil bottle, piece of vacuum tube

 

Only in Australia would this be an actual product... works damn well on dry float bowls



Cheers,
Harv

 

On them Plastic squeeze bottles to prevent barometric pressure from weeping them empty. Just remove the tube that goes to the inside of the bottle. Invert the bottle to use.