[glhs#116]

Story time.

I have a 1971 455 HO with a 1971 455 QuadraJet (not the rare actual HO one but one for a 1971 455 automatic). When I first had the car in 2003 all I ever seemed to read was about how I needed to replace that divorced choke with an electric one. I did that in my first year of ownership but I was always tweaking that thing. Never could get it right somehow. Needed to tighten it up in summer and loosen it in winter. This was in the middle east, too, so not a challenging climate for a choke.

When I got the car back to the UK I could barely start the thing. I still had the old divorced choke in a box but the rod had gone missing. I started to think that even an aftermarket divorced choke most be better than this electric so I ordered a replacement from our hosts. Slapped it on with very low expectations and the bloody car was transformed. It just started. And it didn't matter the temperature. It didn't take long to dial in the right rod length. It was almost immediately almost perfect. In fact the only problem I still really have with it is that the choke cycles to full open a little slower than the speed at which the engine heats up. But I don't think this is the choke's fault. The issue there is that my heads got switched to the Edelbrock ones and those have a much much smaller exhaust crossover passage. So I think it just doesn't get the heat it needs as quickly as the stock heads would heat it.

Weird that the factory system works so well, right? I feel like a moron now for persisting with that silly aftermarket electric choke.

Now if your car came with a factory electric choke for sure I would keep that also. What I'm saying is the factory stuff is really well worked out and the closer you are to it the better things like this work.