Thread: 3.9v8 - hard to start when HOT

If your engine has carbies then the carbie starting procedure. The fact it is a 3.9 is not relevant in this case.

When hot or cold - no throttle as it should fire by itself - when it fires a little throttle might help to keep it running.

If the engine gets flooded then foot flat to the floor as it helps clear the system. So unless you are flooded you should not be flooring it.

Yes sounds like it is rich - get it tuned.

Garry

Probably the carbs need an overhaul.

Probably flooding because the needles and seats are leaking letting too much fuel into the carb bowl which may be then running into the manifold.

Really the best thing to do is get a couple of carby Kits and go through them top to bottom.

Regards Philip A

Hi Phillip A,

When the engine was put in the car (about a month ago) - each carby had a kit through it by a Land Rover mechanic..

He was the one that said: "Start it without choke when cold. When hot - put your foot flat to the floor to ensure therevis fuel in the carbies, then crank it..."

Are you running the original in tank fuel pump or is it inline? I had a V8 lightweight in the uk that would never start when hot, turned out that the fuel vapourised and ran back through the inline pump to tank when hot and needed re priming to start. Put a small check valve in line and solved it.

When it was in mine, it needed choke, but was still slow to start when hot (most V8's I've owned have been like that... ). I never used to flatten it tho.... as it made matters worse. No throttle, no choke when hot and crank. Go try it, but find a slope to try it on!

He was the one that said: "Start it without choke when cold. When hot - put
your foot flat to the floor to ensure therevis fuel in the carbies, then crank
it..."

Well if the carbs are Strombergs or even for that matter SUs all I can say is BS.
They should need choke to start and as posters have said no throttle when hot. Maybe your needles and Main jets are very worn and he found that it runs very rich .
You may have a problem with vapourisation as suggested. That is why RRCs have a recirculation of fuel back to the tank. As the previous poster said what sort of fuel pump . The best is a ticker ticker Facet as original on a RRC as when matched to the return line runs at about 4PSI which doesn't overload the needles and seats..
Regards Philip A

Originally Posted by PhilipA

Well if the carbs are Strombergs or even for that matter SUs all I can say is BS.

I agree - when completely cold mine will fire but not run - choke out and fires up and settles into a smooth idle. The choke can be pushed back in straight away and it will still idle ok but there is no power and will not pull and stalls under load so choke is needed at full until mobile then pushed in 1/2 way until the engine gets some real warmth into it.

The standard 101 system as the fuel pump in the tank and has a fuel return system so the carbs should not be getting vapour lock but the fuel but of course it could be in the manifold but not sure if that is actually an issue.

Garry

Standard starting when cold for a 101 with CD strombergs or SU carbies is full choke and hope it is rich enough to start.
BS and something is very wrong.
Hot start is foot to the floor.