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454 Hard to start hot.

T

Tim73454

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I'm having some trouble with my '73 454 starting when it is hot. If it is hot (210 on my gauge) and I turn it off and try to start it it will not turnover. If I wait about 10 minutes it turns over fine. The battery is 600 amp and I think it should have a 800 amp min. What else can I check or do to stop having to sit and wait or leave it running?

Tim
 
It's electrical

The starter gets to hot.

Heat = resistance.

IF everything is hooked up correctly the coils in the motor will not flow enough current to let the motor spin normaly.

Now there are ABOUT 100 varibles on this problem.

The most unique fix I've seen has been a small muffin fan that will blow air on the starter and tied to the coolant line ( electrically )

So when the temp of the water is above 200 and the engine is off this little muffin fan whizzes away.. He had to make this weird bracket/air box/ deflector thing to get it to work.. without replacing the fan every two weeks from road junk.

The other way to approach it is to beef up the cables.. and put a remote relay by the starter.

( a popular fix for boaters & VW van owners )

But I like the fan thing.. since it directly addresses the primary problem of HEAT SOAK.

You could find an assy like out of a Nissan 300zx
that is designed for just that purpose and retrofit.

The Fan thing has worked EVERYTIME for my buddy.


Mike
 
Tim
If this is a recent development, you might want to be thinking about replacing or rebuilding the starter. The winding insulation could be on it's way out. If this is typical for your car, Mike nailed the problem, it is the dreaded "heat soak". If you have headers you may want to consider applying some header wrap to insulate them. This will cool down the engine compartment and the starter. There are also several heat shields and an insulated jacket available for your starter through www.summitracing.com or through Jeg's.
 
9 out of 10 times, hot start problems with GM products tends to be with the starter selinoid. I have had good luck getting a remote selinoid (like on Fords), and running only one heavy gauge line to the starter. You can get these through Summit or Mad Engineering. The nice thing about the remote is that you can easily hook up to it to bump the engine over when your working on it. I just installed one on my '73 small block. I mounted it on the passenger side firewall above the A/C box. Really makes working on the starter easier too. I really like this setup. Your hot start problems will go away with this setup more than likely.
 
The starter was replaced with a rebuilt one before I picked up the car. It does not have headers but the pipes were wrapped at one time. The passenger side is still wrapped to just under the seat. The drivers side pipes seems to be just a little low and seems to hit the ground from time to time on real bad roads. The wrap on that side is not complete.


Thanks for the input

Tim
 
Tim
same was happening to my 73 454 with headers. There is an easy fix
remove your starter, remove the starter seleniod, wrap the seleniod with header wrap and install.
The reason it will not start is due to the seleniod getting to hot. Good luck
 
i had the same problems with an 81 with headers i just used the heat wrap and it never happen ed again
 
Same problem here a couple of summers ago when it was so freakin' hot in the Big "D"........rebuilt the starter, hi torque model, no problems since
 
Same thing on my 72 454 with big tube headers,Rebuilt the original starter added the correct shielding over solenoid and replaced battery with 850 cold crank amps. 12 years later still no problem.
 

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