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Comment by compostable | Hacker News Reader

Did you ever have to stand outside in the winter, in ice and show, with the hood propped open, spraying starting fluid into the carburetor, and manually holding the throttle open, so that your engine could get to the proper temperature?

Did you ever floor a car and have the engine shut off because there was too much fuel?

No thanks, I don't want to go back to those days!

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I had that happen once. I rebuilt my Rochester Quadrajet and it purred like a kitten for a decade. I eventually gave that car to my friends that had a similar model to use for parts, but it was the best car I ever had. Chevy Caprice Classic, former undercover cop car with a 350 and a shift kit.

I certainly miss those days. Working on my current vehicle is a PITA. The fuel rails, coils and plugs take hours to change. On my old car, I could do that in 15 minutes even if the engine was hot. I can't even imagine how proprietary the components on a Tesla must be or how difficult it will be to fix myself.

I mean, 'JohnJamesRambo did say sometimes.

Like those times you just say "FTW, I'm gonna spew as much unburned fuel out the tailpipe as possible".

I don't think we have to go back to carbs with manual chokes (not that it was all that bad anyways), but frankly an electronic TBI like GM put on the very last generation I small block Chevy engines (with wasted spark ignitions instead of a distributor) would have been a good place to stop (as they're dead simple to work on and program unlike a lot of newer FI setups, and overcome the major problems with carbs like needing altitude and temperature compensation).

Or fiddle with the manual choke to find a setting where the engine would sort of idle. Or wish you had a manual choke, when the automatic choke wouldn't go on -- or off.

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