Optimal Starting Temperature

[jschlapik]

Greetings all, am new to this forum. Just bought an '83 Mark VI off of a private party, and one thing I didn't pay much mind to or ask the seller about is the aftermarket temperature gauge under the dash. The weather's gotten a little colder than it was when I bought the car, and after startup it stalls when I first put it in gear. I'm getting the feeling the previous owner put that temperature gauge in so they could tell if the motor was warmed up enough before putting the car in gear. Anyone know what temperature it should get up to before I put the car in gear?

[Dan Szwarc]

Without knowing your experience, I have to assume you have none, so please don't feel insulted.

Are you fully depressing the accelerator to the floor to set the choke and high idle and letting it warm up for at least a few seconds before putting it into gear?

Carbs need some warm up time or higher idle to operate while cold because… well, physics. In the carb days, it was expected that the owner would adjust the choke settings and idle periodically throughout the year.

[brkdncr]

Carbs needs to be adjusted for cold weather. Usually you only need to adjust the automatic choke.

You’ll need to see if there are specific adjustments for your carb mentioned in the owners or service manuals.

Edit: disregard, didn’t read that you had an ‘83.

[Lee]

It “should be” fuel injection that year, unless it’s been retrograded.
If the EFI is there, and working correctly (key words), you should be able to put it straight into drive, even after a cold start. But it probably isn’t, because it is EEC-3, and they were trouble prone.

[jschlapik]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll give your suggestions a try.

[TonyC]

I have to agree with Lee. By '83 Lincoln should have gone fully into FI, even though it was likely TBFI that year. Even the humpback Continental switched to TBFI that year, after that idiotic attempt to revive the VV carburetor in '82.

Plus, the prior owner sounds like someone who didn't know what he was doing. The Mark VI already had its own temp gauge, albeit likely digital. It may have gone on the fritz; and instead of diagnosing what he already had, he chose the ghetto option by adding stuff that didn't need to be added. Considering how sensitive the electronics were then (still are now, but let's stay focused on then), it wouldn't surprise me if the raping of the wiring he performed may have had some bad side-effects on other systems.

---Tony

[Mike]

Not to mention even if it hasn't been messed with 40 year old sensors don't always work right.
I don't know how Ford did things with fuel injection and all that back then but a lot of engines had heat passages in the intake and a valve in the exhaust that helped warm up the intake and fuel delivery quicker in winter and that can also carbon up and be less efficient and usually only shows up with cold starts in cold temperature.

[Lee]

Jschlapik, there are ways to retrieve trouble codes from these years. Not easy, but might help you solve your cold start problem. Let me know if you want to try, I can help walk you through it.