[DeTomaso] Electric Choke, yes or no?

[Mikael]

A word about electric chokes, I know this is not what was asked, but that
won't stop me...

On my Longchamp, semi-mild daily driver, yes definitely an electric choke.

But on a Pantera, especially a fast one, I wouldn't want one. I would rather
rev it a bit with the throttle for the first minutes. The main problem with
an electric choke (connected to proper 12V) is that if you leave the car
parked for an hour and get back and start it, the choke will be fully on and
take a little while to go off, and the engine doesn't need it. That means
too rich mixture for a while, which washes oil off the cylinder walls. And
if you have a high performance engine with narrow tuning tolerances and
colder plugs, maybe even race plugs, the plugs can foul up due to this choke
action. If you then do the wrong thing, look at your plugs and conclude that
you need more lean jetting, then it really starts to get dangerous. In
short, high performance engines shouldn't have an electric choke, it should
have manual cable operated choke (difficult in a Pantera) or no choke at
all. Divorced chokes are a bit better than electric chokes, but rarely seen
these days.
(And on a totally unscientific note: The sound of the engine when almost
warm, idling just above the rpm where it would die, that sound is fantastic)


Just my $0.02

Mvh/Regards
Mikael

-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: John Buckman [mailto:jb841 at cox.net] 
Sendt: 19. december 2013 19:17
Til: detomaso at poca.com
Emne: Re: [DeTomaso] Electric Choke

Why are we running a new wire?  I just used the wire that is in the OEM
loom.  It still works great.  Look at your wiring diagram.


>>>The short answer is that connecting the electric choke to the existing
ignition wire can act as a rev limiter for your ignition system. 

If you do not use a relay, and if you are not using the factory throttler
position solenoid, there will be a red wire at the (approximate) center of
the firewall that can be extended to the new electric choke's PLUS (+)
terminal.

John