1.3 mk2 poor cold running, ideas???

[tobz.]

I'm experiencing a bit of a problem with my winter runabout from cold and was wondering if anybody had some suggestions what it could be. The problem is only when starting from cold in the morning and only lasts for about 3miles. Basically you can't give it anymore than about half throttle or it just stops firing and slows down. This morning I thought I would just keep my foot flat on the throttle and see what happened. It stopped firing, started slowing down then started backfiring and chucking out loads of thick black smoke. I returned to half throttle and it carried on running fine. Once it has fully warmed up you can use full throttle and it runs well and pulls right up to 90mph. I need to get to the bottom of this before I tuck the gti up for the winter and need to fully rely on the banger.
Any suggestions???

Toby

[Gambit]

dunno the exact in's & outs but i think there is a heater element on the carb somewhere to prevent this happening.

the fault itself is generally known as "Carb Icing"

[tobz.]

I guess this must be an electrical heater that comes on with the ignition?

Does anyone know where I can get an carburettor overhaul kit for it from (christ it been years since I needed one of those) I think it's a pierburg 2E3. I seem to remember kits being available with all the gaskets and vacuum diaphragms etc for a full strip-down.

[JMallows]

If you also connect the cold air intake to a warm supply, this will help a lot.... Have a look at the picture below, you can see the hose at the bottom, i simply extended the hose to the exhaust heat shroud. I assume yours would be exactly the same...... Its a bit hard to see....

[1300mk2]

not too sure this is carb icing, although we are getting to that time of year. :'( the carb 2E3 is probably shagged. The auto choke is unreliable and its worth looking at that and also the vacum unit at the back of the carb is suspect on most. i may be being pessimistic but i had all this trouble and more last year and got thoroughly peeved so bit the bullet and whacked on the weber replacement carb with manual choke. easy job, solves all problems, and improves performance slightly. Costs ?200 new though. worth looking for one at the scrappy if it's only a winter vehcle. good luck

[JMallows]

agreed it doesn't sound like carb icing, but it would still help if you replace the hose if ur planning on keeping the 2E2 carb? (Which is what i'd meant)

Am also considering the carb, as it gets worse every year

[free]

my driver is funny when it want 2 b, the carb could need cleaning and setting up,
mine does

[tobz.]

I left the car running for about 10mins this morning before I left and it ran fine from the start, I therefore think it is a temp related problem. It's been suggested to me that I should probably replace the air temp sensor in the air filter. Think I will overhaul the carb aswell to be sure, I don't think the carb itself will be sh@gged as the car only has 67k on it. The diaphragms etc may have deteriorated over time though.
Yep mallows I can just see a little bit of the hose you mention at the bottom of the pic. This has been suggested to me on the polo forum, however I thought performance would be affected if you continued to supply hot air to the intake after the engine is up to normal operating temp???

[JMallows]

Negligible performance. For me, its better performance than without it, which is why i did it. If you could put it on over winter, then take it off for summer, that would be best.... Try it, and see what happens! Can't hurt, probably won't solve all your problems though, just help it along...

[tobz.]

I've just been looking on the german & swedish site and a new air temp sensor is over ?18 
Don't really want to spend this much on something so trivial for my winter banger. I assume that to test the thing I simply need to start it from cold with the cold air intake removed so I can see the cold/hot air flap and make sure that is switched to hot air until the engine is well up to temp???
I thought about sourcing one from the scrappy but there is no guarantee it would be a good one.