John, as has been said, it's not uncommon, indeed, common, for Q-Jet cars to take a bit of "encouragement" to start. I've mentioned this in another post recently, but our carb was set up by a friend, a chap who was THE man in So Cal for 30 odd years, but from cold, ie after a few days, it still requires at least two full throttle pumps and then will crank for exactly 5 seconds before it fires. Apart from ensuring the choke pull-off valve was working (it wasn't originally!) my buddy spent a while adjusting the choke to ensure that it was fully shut when the engine was cold, but came off when it was warm. It is also important to get the "Fast Idle" adjustment just right. The engine should run at about 13 - 1400 rpm when initially started from cold, a blip on the throttle after a few minutes to allow it to warm through should then bring it down to about 1000 rpm (900 in D)
As always, the advice from Lars is good, but you may just find that some attention to adjustments works! If you have the Haynes manual, the section on the carb is actually pretty accurate and useful.
Lars makes a good point re Ethanol fuels, by the way. Aside from the manifest ignorance about their environmental benefits, they should be avoided like the plague if you run an older car. Given that it is almost impossible to do that, I have now begun adding Millers EPS, as all fuel over here is at least 5% Ethanol. Miller EPS has been proven to aleviate almost all of Ethanol's harmful effects.
