Starting Below 20 degrees?

[bobbovine]

I am having a heck of a time trying to get my 260z started. It came from down South so the cold totally killed the battery that was in it. I got a brand new battery and it started up with little problem, I let it run the idle smoothed out, everything was cool so I turned it off. I tried starting it up again shortly after and it fired right to life. The next day it was increasingly difficult to start, the engine just cranks, but wont turn over. After about 10-15 minutes trying to start it with and without the jump assist from my battery charger I got frustrated and gave up. Stubornly I went back out to the garage about an hour later and it started the on the second try.

Yesterday, no luck. Today it's just cranking again. It sounds like it catches every once an a while but when I release the key it just sputters and dies. The past two days it has been VERY cold here, like 17 degrees on the thermomoter with a windchill bringing it down to about 4 degrees. I'm thinking it's just to damn cold for it. What does everyone else think? It is in the garage, but it's unheated.....

[bobbovine]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention the car has a L28 in it istead of the stock L26.

[Alfadog]

You might want to try to use the choke on cold mornings?

[Ed]

If you still have the original flat top carbs that would be the culprit. My 73 did the same in 30-40 F. The colder it got the worse it would get, the choke did very little to help. Changing to the round top carbs solved it though.

[bobbovine]

The car has Dual Webers on it. The choke is hooked up, but doesn't really help. Now I'm thinking it must be the cold because it hit about 29-30 degrees out and it fired right up.

It's a really bad time to be in Connecticut right now, but it could be worse I could live in Maine

Thanks!

[Ed]

Don't tell me that your driving your Z on the salty roads:cry: .

[bobbovine]

No salty roads, it isn't even registered yet. The most I'll do is go around the block real quick to get a feel for it.

[beandip]

If you are just playing with it and just want to get it started to hear it run and take it around the block , I can understand the frustration with the weather, and wanting to be driving her. Try giving it a shot of starting fluid in the air cleaner intake. This should get her to start right off, saving the starter and Batt. One reason it may becoming harder to start in this cold , is that if not sufficently warmed up when it is shut down that it may be getting loaded up. If it is repeted a few times .This will eventually foul the plugs. In order for the cold engine to be able to run in the first place it must have a richer mixture of fuel to air. This will leave the cylinder head wet with fuel untill the temp. is up and the engine runs good with out the choke. This might be the culprt.