Questions and Answers

Oldsmobile Cutlass Won't Start Cold
Q. Hey Vince, I have a 1968 Oldsmobile Cutlass S convertible. 350 4bbl engine, automatic transmission, over 200,000 miles, rebuilt at 150,000 miles. No ABS, power assisted steering no AC and no cruise. No racing or performance modifications except for an electronic ignition put in by the previous owner. It's basically all stock.

The engine won't cold start in the morning or when it hasn't been running for over three hours without adding gas to the carburetor. I changed the fuel filter and sprayed out the carburetor with cleaner and compressed air, with no luck. PCV hoses and connections are fine.

The car drives fine otherwise and it will restart when its hot. Do I need to rebuild? Or is this simply a problem with the float bowl or even the accelerator pump?

Much appreciated,
Patrick

A. Some diagnosis is in order. Remove the air cleaner and look down the carburetor venturi. Pump the accelerator a couple of time and watch for a squirt of fuel. If not, don't spray anything in there. This is when you need to see if there is any fuel in the bowl.

There may be a vent tube that you can look into bowl or dip a pipe cleaner into to see if it comes out wet. Either the bowl is cracked and leaking down into the engine after sitting or the bowl has gas and it has no accelerator pump action or dirty/sticking check ball in the bore.

Also check the choke mechanism and adjustment. The choke may not be closing and that will make for a hard cold start as well.