There are 2 things that affects cold start running.

1. Fuel system. When cold the engine requires a richer running condition and most older vehicles either have a manuaul choke system whereby the choke is pulled to close the upper carburettor bore to increase the fuel ratio to the amount of air going in to enrich the system. This would also increase the idling speed of the engine to reduce shorter wating period.

If your carburettor is equipped with the choke system, get it checked and ensure it is working correctly.

2. Ignition system. When ignition coil, spark plugs and wires are bad, they would run bady when cold. After warming up, they would perform better.

Get the spark plug cables ohmed out and ensure they have continuity and have less than 25 k ohms.

Ensure the sparks from the ignitin coil are strong, ( bright blue) weak sparks would not allow the cylinders to combust correctly.

Answered by KHLow2008 (expert)
39,956 answers provided

How about performance parts? Will replacing or adding stuff fix the problem as well as the upgrade of spark plugs? For example the Edelbrock Performer Series Carburetor http://www.jcwhitney.com/performer-series-carburetors/p2021379.jcwx?filterid=c2039d1399y1963j1

Response from calipapi2000
1 question asked

Performance parts does nothing to help except burn a hole in your pockets.

Unless the original parts are found to be bad, forget about wasting your money on them.

If the carbutretor is bad or without any choke mechanism, you can consder others but if it is not faulty, putting performance parts is not going to help.

Ensure you know what is wrong or causing the problem before embarking on parts replacement.

Answered by KHLow2008 (expert)
39,956 answers provided