Hot Starting Problems

[Guest Barry Garlow]

Hello Toyota Owners Club. I'm having a problem with starting my Corolla when the engine is hot. It's a 1989 1.3 manual estate. Engine is a 2E with a V type carburettor.

The problem only occurs under certain conditions. After the engine has reached operating tempature, if I restart it within 2 or 3 minutes of switching off, it starts fine. However, if I leave it between 5 and 20 minutes, I get the problem. If it is left any longer to cool down it starts fine. Starts perfectly ok from cold in the morning, it appears to be flooding because the best way of starting it when there is a problem is to start it on full throttle and then there's a smell of petrol. Hope I worded that ok and that someone can help. :P Thanks!

[Mick24]

Hot soak was quite a common problem with the V type carb - the under bonnet/engine temperature would heat the fuel in the float chamber of the carb and the vapour given off would spill into the throttle body/ butterfly.

This in turn would give an over-rich mixture when trying to restart the car after 10-20 mins of standing - you have to crank it for ages before it would fire up and run rough before clearing itself.

Would be worth having the Float level checked to make sure its not too high and also Hot Idle Compensator ( HIC ) Valve on the carb checked as the rubber cap/diaphragm on the bimetal strip used to perish.

The 2E engine was quite sensitive to the spark plug gaps and valve clearances being set correctly - so if its not had an engine tune in the past year or so, have it tuned before having the carb work done.

Hope this helps,

Mick

[Guest Barry Garlow]

Thanks for the advice, I'll try your suggestions. Thanks again. :)