[Cliff R]

A working choke is a good thing to have with a wet-flow system. It becomes mandatory if/when you want to start and drive the car in really cold weather. It can be optional for vehicles that are used mostly in warm weather, have blocked heat crossovers, etc. I ran without one for many years but finally got tired of the "drama" involved trying to start the engine in cold weather. With a working choke and fast idle one pump of the throttle and the engine roars to life instantly in any weather. When the choke coil s set correctly it will start to unload the choke as the engine warms up. No negatives anyplace if things are correctly adjusted. This means that you fast idle speed screw is right, the choke pull-off unloads the choke to precisely the correct angle so it's not going lean and stalling or rich and "blubbering", and the choke coil itself has the choke flap fully open about the same time there is enough heat in the intake so the engine will idle on the curb idle speed screw.

It sounds easy but may take some "tweaking" to get it all dialed in perfectly for your combination. Once you do the engine will start instantly weather, stay running, drop RPM's as you depress the throttle and the fast idle cam drops to lower positions and within a few minutes it will be idling fine on it's own.

With no choke you will find a LOT more fuel is needed to get it to fire, and you'll have to act like the fast idle cam until some heat gets into the intake so it idles on it's own. How long that takes is directly dependent on engine and outside air temps. Some folks can deal with all that better than others as i see a LOT of these engines using carburetors that don't even have a choke on them anyplace..........