Either way, water or electric, both are fine. From my experience, water chokes tend to take a bit longer to disengage than electric because the engine must reach a reasonable operating temperature; this determined by ambient temperature and engine load. With electric heaters the time is determined simply by ambient temperature. Which is best? Neither. The trade off is water leaks and corrosion vs. Bosch fuses and relays -- intesting odds.
Arde said:
What is a water choke? Don't tell me my car uses water based hydraulics.
The water choke simply uses engine coolant rather than an electric heater to heat up a bi-metalic coil spring which disengages the choke ... nope, no water based hydaulics. It is hard to imagine anything too serious that can go wrong with the water choke besides leaking; the coil spring breaking, or the adjustment being off. Of course with our E9's, we also get to synchronize them. The water part of the mechanism is really dirt simple - water goes in, water comes out. When the water is warm the coil is heated, it expands, and the choke is released. It would be interesting to find out exactly what Neal's mechanic said the problem was.
