1991 240
On the hot days here in Iowa it's necessary to use the gas pedal liberally to keep it from quitting upon starting... after research here I suspected a leaking cold start valve - too much fuel causing an extra-rich mixture. So, I unplugged the cold start valve electrical connector and now it starts fine.
My question is, is there anything I might have overlooked that I should check before I spend $150 on a used cold start valve? (New valves are apparently unavailable also.) On one occasion (before I unplugged the cold start valve) the check engine light came on and gave the error codes for air mass meter and oxygen sensor. I put a different AMM in and reset the codes, but the starting problem continued until I unplugged the cold start valve.
So right now it starts fine, but I wonder if it might be potentially harmful to drive it with the cold start valve electric connection unplugged?
I'll throw this in there too - the car tends to run cool, instead of the temp gauge right in the middle it's usually well below that. I'll try a new thermostat soon, but I wonder if the cool running temperature could indicate a chronic rich mixture from a faulty cold start valve.
Thanks!
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