Gas monster
had to back down the initial timing 4°
In my experience, cold starts are much better with more Idle-Timing, but it depends an awful lot on other factors ; like the gas, the compression ratio, the choke, and various carb settings. Try Not to mess with the timing for cold start issues, it will just frustrate the heck outta you. The colder it gets, the more spot-on your carb adjustments will have to be.
My best advice for your northern winter is to install TWO new engine heaters, one on each side of the engine block. And to do it now, before it gets any colder, and don't forget to plug them in!
One other thing is car icing that occasionally happens at just above/ around the freezing point of water. This is caused by water in the atmosphere freezing on your throttle blades and in or on your calibration bleeds. This can be extremely frustrating. Your best defenses against this are; carb heat, a functioning heat crossover under the carb with a working heat-riser system, a known good working PCV valve system, a larger than normal throttle opening, and/or retarded idle timing. When all else fails, park it inside a heated shop, long enough to take the chill off the intake manifold. Run a closed air-filter box and do not let the cooling fan blow directly into the air intake.
Good luck.
