Won’t Anything Start? AHHHHHHHHHH! BRRRRRRRRRR! GRRRRRRRRR!

Heat gunning the plugs? Didnt work.

Well, Friday I was all set to get the boats out of the water ASAP and get them winterized. WECATCHEM needed to get into the barn, and The Photo Boat had not been winterized since its first and last test run. But the cold weather gods had other plans. I have no idea, and I am sure someone will, why nothing would start. Not even the 1958 Truck. Crank crank cranky man! I was bitter emotionally and physically.

Pulling the plugs. What I wish my kids will do with me one day!

THOSE! THOSE ARE THE GUILTY Gang of carbs. G – Dang Nab 567% 47&*(*&^@T$&%@$O(@*$YP@

32 degrees. One slip of a ratchet and son of a B%^$%#$^@&@

Not what you think. Gas to pour into the cylenders. Didnt work either. Well kinda did. Got a sputter sputter. HOPE!

Jimmy and I wore out two batteries and our patience.

Until a fellow Woody Boater Paul Woodford came by. His son got the truck started and that broke the chain of pain.

Backing out of the boat house for the year!

OH YAH. BTW, its cold out there.

Reedville one last time for 2018.

Headed to the ramp one last time.

Backing into the barn

I got WECATCHEM started and went for a last run. A cold bitter run, but just enough to fall in love again.

Back to the un named photo boat

All ready

Getting the Photo Boat started was a trick. Here is the trick to getting a KFL started. Dont.. Just kidding.

VROOM!

1. Pull the choke. DO NOT TOUCH THE THROTTLE.

2. Crank until it sputs,

3. Turn off the choke and crank and pray

4. Once it sputters to start, start moving the throttle. VROOM!

That got her all started and flushed with antifreeze. Now the winter blues start.

Tucked away!

 

19 replies
  1. Mark
    Mark says:

    My routine is close.

    1. Throttle at 1 o’clock
    2. Pull the choke
    3. Crank briefly
    4. Choke in
    5. Starts every time

    The onlookers are always holding their collective breaths until she starts.

    • Matt
      Matt says:

      Oh, I like that one, the 1 oclock would be an interesting twist. The trick is though, one screw up and its flodded. HA. One shot wonder

  2. Bob B
    Bob B says:

    My 1948 CC K engine:
    Full choke, a little throttle, start cranking and almost immediately it catches, push in choke knob immediately and play with throttle until it settles down. Listen to the engine and eye on the oil pressure gauge. Works every time. Water coming out the exhaust?…good…Off we go.

  3. Troy in ANE
    Troy in ANE says:

    With any of the Herc’s that are equipped with Zeniths I like to get the engine cranking over before pulling out the choke. I find this prevents flooding.
    Once the engine fires I go to half choke while warming up.

    • floyd r turbo
      floyd r turbo says:

      I like your process because your oil gets circulated somewhat before the ignition kicks in lubricating cylinder walls, cams, lifters, etc that have drained while sitting (sometimes for a long period).

  4. Dan T
    Dan T says:

    If they’ve been sitting a while, I cheat with a squirt of starting fluid before I choke and crank. Updrafts don’t updraft easily. At least downdrafts don’t have to defy gravity. And ethanol is just a total disaster for our ancient engines.

    • charley quimby
      charley quimby says:

      Yeah, Jim… With motor windings the diameter of a pencil, those old 6-volt starters will spin the old Hercs real fast, so starting is a grape. I used 6-volt Chrysler starters on my old Hemi 300-Cs and D. 10:1 compression. Only burnt out one motor after years of easy startups… CQ

  5. John Rothert
    John Rothert says:

    I am with KM….Troy, did you have the ignition ON when you did the first crack sequence? On a diesel I always like to crank a bit before using the manifold heater…feel like it gets the fuel at the injectors and ready to rock. Sort of the same idea with the crank without ignition sequence on gas hercs…which works ….but like everything else…..only sometimes!
    John in VA

  6. Syd
    Syd says:

    They all start differently and then with different air temps they need something different again. Then again they sometimes like to play with you, what worked today does not work tomorrow. All part of the fun. Even my old outboards are this way. Cool spring or late cool falls running’s need a much richer carb setting.
    May NY state always sell non ethanol fuel. For one year I could not get it and I lost about 300 rpms at the top end with the ethanol and had to run the engine several hundred more rpms than my normal speed range to get the same running attitude of the boat. This was with my hemi in Black Witch.
    I do not see any ice on the decks, so it could not have been too cold. The coldest run of a boat (other than when I was in the USCG) was when we took my brothers boat out for a test run during his rebuild of the boat. This was on Lake George and I believe was early December. Flat calm when we headed out, then the wind came up. It was very cold and we had ice on the boat when we got back. It was very cold.

    Speaking of ice, my first USCG Station was Gloucester MA. That was cold in the winter, during the ice season we carried wooden baseball bats on the boat in case we needed to break the ice off the boat to keep it from rolling us over. This was standard procedure for any CG boat or ship operating in ice making weather.

  7. don danenberg
    don danenberg says:

    Is that illegal, green antifreeze?
    Can’t run that poison into the lake!
    Should be Blue Marine antifreeze.

  8. Reddog
    Reddog says:

    Same as Don D. about green antifreeze. Also no replay of putting the boat back on the trailer video? Glad you guys got the boats packed away in time.

  9. Matt
    Matt says:

    We don’t run the boats until started on land on gravel. Kills weeds good. No water anything. We used the blue on wecatchem btw. Normally use pink RV type

  10. don danenberg
    don danenberg says:

    Pink-Pop is for plastic-tanked RV units, read the label.
    Blue-Pop has, on it’s label, ‘rust-inhibitor’.
    Both of the above are bio-degradable.
    The Green Shit is NOT!
    The Green stuff is sweet-tasting to dogs, cats, and fishes as well, but will kill them. They might lick it off your interpenetrate “land or gravel”?
    Ask your personal Coast Guard buddies?
    I believe it’s a $5,000 fine, like an oil-spill, to poison the waters with it?

    Hey.., they both are far cheaper than the green stuff.., will that work?

  11. Matt
    Matt says:

    We know all the antifreeze types. The only boat with the green will be sitting in the barn for over a year. It will be flushed and great efforts made to make sure non of this, or any of anything, gets into the water. We take the clean bay issue very seriously here since we eat from it.
    Yes we were kidding about the gravel. Because as you know that seaps into the ground, which is the biggest issue here on the bay. Stuff seaping into the ground water. The engine is drained. As I said, the other boats used the other types. And yes, stay off my lawn. I just planted it. HA

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