Giving cars a rest

Ken, it sounds like your float bowls might be draining out.
I’m assuming you know that the gas pedal has to be pumped once on carbed engines to set the throttle plate and the idle and to prime the engine.

“Maybe it’s an auto immune problem…” Maybe a “flue” shot would help?

Now that you mention carbs, my 59 Pontiac had to have the gas pedal vigorously pumped if it was cold out and sat overnight. I mean pumping the gas as fast as you could or it would not start. This was before I did much work myself but the carb had been overhauled once. I suspect now that maybe the gas was draining out of the float bowl and the thing just needed to be epoxied but I dunno. Then I wonder why the engine wasn’t flooded in the morning with all that gas leaking out of the carb. Just something I always wondered about. Never had the same problem before or since.

Mine seems to run a bit better if I beat the snot out of it a bit now and then, the “Italian tuneup” syndrome I guess. Or perhaps it’s the adaptive learning on the electronic throttle and transmission that get a bit lazy if I drive like a grandmother for days on end.

I think it might be an excuse for him to rest a bit.

I don’t believe this is true for automobile engines, but I think small engines on pushtype mowers should be given a rest after each tank of gasoline is used up. The manuals say o refuel the engine when it is cool. When my mower runs out of gas, I have found that it gets sufficient time to rest and cool off if I sit down and drink a beer while the engine is cooling.

That’s only because they don’t want you to spill gas on the muffler or hot parts and start a fire. But any excuse to relax and have a beer is good with me too.

Maybe he’s trying to get his wife to stop running the wheels off her car every day.

This discussion has gone on way too long and you guys are keeping my car up late. It needs it’s rest.

Well, cars have “feelings”!. Remember Hogan (on Hogan’s Heroes) telling Schultz that “a clean car is a happy car” when offering to wash commander Klinck’s car so they could bug it.

Cars have feelings! maybe, mine has been an every day starter and runner, left it for 3 days, cranks but no start, it was 18 below, can of heet and after 3 hours decided to start again. No codes, but it was feeling neglected I guess. Funny part could not even get a kick with starter fluid. Started when driven every day in colder temps, fair and balanced news, you decide.