1968 Continental Choke And Poor Start Issues

Hi Bill,
Hello from Australia… I have a question re my 68 Continental.
I have a choke heater pipe which has rusted through which as I understand it, means that the higher cold start idle stays for longer; it settles soon as the engine warms up.
However, would this also be responsible for the fact that the car is very hard to start when cold?
Despite activating the auto choke by pumping there gas a few times it can take up to 5 or 6 goes to get her to fire. If I remove the air filter squirt a little ether mix (we have a great product here called ‘Start Ya Bastard’…really) directly into the carb she fires up.
Is the choke heater pipe to blame for poor starting too? Or do I have another issue to explore?
Thank you so much for the blog. It’s very useful. Especially here where Lincolns are a bit thin on the ground!
Ed
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Greetings Ed –
You are correct when you believe that the rusted through choke heater tube should have nothing to do with the poor cold engine starts. It functions only to guide the necessary heat to the bi-metallic choke coil in order to slowly open the choke as the engine warms up to operating temperature. What will affect fast cold engine starts on a normally good running engine are…..A choke valve that is not FULLY closed when the engine is cold, a fuel delivery system and carburetor that cannot supply an abundance of fuel to the intake manifold when the accelerator pedal is pumped on a cold engine, poor quality fuel, an under maintained / maladjusted ignition system or a worn out engine with poor compression etc. When the engine is cold, good maintenance to all of the above items is very important and work together for quick cold engine starts.
I like the name of your starting fluid. It is very appropriate and always brings a smile when I hear it said. Good luck with diagnosing your starting problem.
Sincerely,
Bill