Is it bad to start car with gas pedal to floor?

Hello, My old Chevy Lumina usually starts fine, but lately about 1 in 10 times it won't start unless I press gas pedal all the way to the floor. Ordinarily, of course, i don't press gas pedal at all when starting. It always turns over fine, just sometimes won't do any more than that unless I do the gas pedal trick, and then I'm good to go.

My question is am I doing long term damage to the engine by blissfully ignoring this, since I know the "trick" to get it started when necessary?

It always behaves perfectly once it's running -- starting is the only issue.

Thanks Dave

Reply to
davepkz
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Not if you release the pedal in time to prevent high revs with the engine cold.

FWIW its likely you have a problem with flooding -- possibly caused by an injector leaking down.

Don

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Reply to
Don

If a vehicle has a carburetor with an automatic choke, one must move the throttle to allow it to reset, or floor it to force it open. If one needs to force the choke open, too much fuel entering the carburetor. Moving the throttle on a modern EFI equipped vehicle is not necessary, or advisable, since the microprocessor sets the fuel/air ratio as needed.

mike

Reply to
Mike Hunter

How old is this Lumina and does it have fuel injection or a carb (some very early ones did actually use a Rochester E2SE 2-barrel carb with electronic mixture control)?

To amplify what Mike said, if it is injected, if you push and hold the throttle past the 90% point during cranking the ECM will not pulse the fuel injectors. The fact that the car starts under those conditions tells me you have an injector that is leaky, and the engine needs the extra airflow to have a fireable mixture. As long as you let up on the throttle as soon as the engine starts, starting the car this way should not harm it, but you would be better off having it looked at and having the underlying problem resolved.

Regards, Bill Bowen Sacramento, CA

"Mike Hunter" wrote:

Reply to
William H. Bowen

My little sister's (in her late 20's) car blew up about 5 years ago. So I loaned her my beloved '72 Plymouth Valiant 4 door (225 slant 6, 904 TorqueFlite tranny, it used to be a municipal car -- simple, white, had radio delete, plastic floormats/no carpet, only had like 70K miles, etc.). It DID run great. When I was at her house one day, she left to go to the store in my Valiant. She started it by flooring it all the way to the ground and then turning the ingition. So it was screaming! Here, it was cold and not properly lubed internally, and she starts it up at full throttle! I ran out and asked her not to do that. Long story, short. The Valiant blew up under her 'care'. :-( Lesson learned/moral of the story: when loaning out your car to someone, go over starting procedures.

Reply to
Grappletech

Probably a leaky fuel injector allowing fuel to "pool" in the intake plumbing, necessitating a lot of air flow through the open throttle to clear it out.

Tends to wash oil off the cylinder walls accelerating wear, and also probably means its idling too rich (if its a leaky injector or injectors). But nothing immediately harmful.

Reply to
Steve

A carbureted LUMINA? Nope. Don't think so. The very early Cavalier and Citation were carb'd, but not a Lumina.

Reply to
Steve

Steve,

You're partially right - I was thinking 1982-84 vintage, which is of course the Celebrity, not the Lumina.

That's what I get for trying to reply to posts at 3 in the morning.

Bill

Reply to
William H. Bowen

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