My car's hot starting issue is bugging the hell out of me! I gassed up the car on the way home and almost couldn't start it again. Last night and today I've been reading the forums like mad trying to get some ideas. I made a list of 10 possible things that could be going on. Last year I replaced all of the electrical items under the hood except for the alternator and firewall starter relay. I think maybe I should replace the starter relay and maybe the alternator diodes, which could be draining current, but I'm going to do some multimeter checks first.
I had set the carb with a vacuum gage and slightly backed it off after that before I took it in for paint 8 months ago. Before it was running rich. I'm no carb expert, but it runs pretty good now traffic and not a lot of smoke out the back, but it doesn't start as easily cold as it used to. I know that really rich carb used to start great when the motor was cold. Now, if it doesn't fire though, sometimes I'll get a big puff of smoke out from under the hood. Then it's really hard to start.
Most times in the morning on a cold start I pump the gas 3 times, pull the manual choke all the way out, crank it and usually it doesn't fire, so I crank it again with a little gas and it will fire most times, but sometimes it takes 3 or 4 tries. After it's hot, the only way I can get it to start again (whether it sits for 5 min or 2 hrs) is to leave my foot off the gas, crank the key and after 4 revs let go of the key. 7 out of 10 times it fires when I release the key. Sometimes it doesn't and when that happens, I'm lucky to get it started at all. When it happened yesterday at the gas station like that, I changed the battery to a new one and on the 2nd try after the flooded gas was cleared it fired. If the starter were sounding like it was struggling I would think for sure it's heat soak in the starter, but it sounds like it's spinning pretty good to me and then when I release the key it fires (which tells me the load from the starter requires release before the engine can fire?)
I also wrapped almost all of my fuel lines last year, but I still have a 4" section up by the carb inlet that could use some wrap.
I reach under the hood and touch my coil and WOW!! It is extremely hot. I'm sure that's not good.
My starter could be getting hot too and it's so close to the block (closer than to the headers which are wrapped) that I couldn't get a heat shield in there, but this aluminum/fiberglass heat wrap I have fits, but I'm worried about trapping heat. A shield would be better.
By the way, this is a small block 360 motor with a high torque mini-starter (not sure of the brand. It's all painted over and was in the car when I got it.) Funny thing is, last year with this same starter the car started cold great, but had problems starting hot. Back then I addressed vapor lock fuel issues and had the headers wrapped, added a 1/2" plastic carb spacer under the Edelbrock 600, and placed heat sleeves over 80% of the fuel lines in the engine bay. A few months later, the starter spun and spun without engaging when it was hot, then I let it sit and it finally fired the car. I took it out that day and had the thing rebuilt. Ever since then, when the car is hot it only starts when I release the key. Gotta be related right?
Any ideas from the symptoms I'm describing? I think I just need to get in there and do process of elimination.
I had set the carb with a vacuum gage and slightly backed it off after that before I took it in for paint 8 months ago. Before it was running rich. I'm no carb expert, but it runs pretty good now traffic and not a lot of smoke out the back, but it doesn't start as easily cold as it used to. I know that really rich carb used to start great when the motor was cold. Now, if it doesn't fire though, sometimes I'll get a big puff of smoke out from under the hood. Then it's really hard to start.
Most times in the morning on a cold start I pump the gas 3 times, pull the manual choke all the way out, crank it and usually it doesn't fire, so I crank it again with a little gas and it will fire most times, but sometimes it takes 3 or 4 tries. After it's hot, the only way I can get it to start again (whether it sits for 5 min or 2 hrs) is to leave my foot off the gas, crank the key and after 4 revs let go of the key. 7 out of 10 times it fires when I release the key. Sometimes it doesn't and when that happens, I'm lucky to get it started at all. When it happened yesterday at the gas station like that, I changed the battery to a new one and on the 2nd try after the flooded gas was cleared it fired. If the starter were sounding like it was struggling I would think for sure it's heat soak in the starter, but it sounds like it's spinning pretty good to me and then when I release the key it fires (which tells me the load from the starter requires release before the engine can fire?)
I also wrapped almost all of my fuel lines last year, but I still have a 4" section up by the carb inlet that could use some wrap.
I reach under the hood and touch my coil and WOW!! It is extremely hot. I'm sure that's not good.
My starter could be getting hot too and it's so close to the block (closer than to the headers which are wrapped) that I couldn't get a heat shield in there, but this aluminum/fiberglass heat wrap I have fits, but I'm worried about trapping heat. A shield would be better.
By the way, this is a small block 360 motor with a high torque mini-starter (not sure of the brand. It's all painted over and was in the car when I got it.) Funny thing is, last year with this same starter the car started cold great, but had problems starting hot. Back then I addressed vapor lock fuel issues and had the headers wrapped, added a 1/2" plastic carb spacer under the Edelbrock 600, and placed heat sleeves over 80% of the fuel lines in the engine bay. A few months later, the starter spun and spun without engaging when it was hot, then I let it sit and it finally fired the car. I took it out that day and had the thing rebuilt. Ever since then, when the car is hot it only starts when I release the key. Gotta be related right?
Any ideas from the symptoms I'm describing? I think I just need to get in there and do process of elimination.
