grr...starting problems..any ideas?

[PKRWUD]

Originally posted by Frankenstang65
Another NEW starter??....lol...you sound pretty confident, so I'll give it a try. Been really beating my head against the wall on this one, hopefully that'll solve it.

I'll double check all my connections tonight, but I'm 98% sure that they are all clean and tight. And yes, the battery is only 5 days old, so I'm almost positive that it couldn't be the weak link.

A friend of mine suggested the possibilty of the carb leaking fuel into the intake, and that when it evaporates it could create extra tension on re-start. Is that a viable theory? Wouln't the car have to sit for a few minutes for that to take place? If the car is warm and I shut it off and then try to restart immediatley, it still barely cranks.

Also, is there ANY possibililty that it could be a problem with the shortblock? My oil pressure may be a little low (not sure I trust the dummy gauge though) and after I did the heads/cam/rockers it seems to run pretty hot. Could something be worn-out (and expanding with heat) and that is causing extra internal friction on re-start? I know this is "worst case" type thinking, but I must say the more things I replace and test with no change the more sleep I lose wondering about it....lol.

Any other ideas/comments are apreciated...I'll let you know what I find out.

If your oil pressure is on the low side, that means you have more than enough clearance at the bearings, which means less resistance. Today, Pistons are actually designed to be egg shaped when cold, so that when they expand, they become full circles. This will make it more difficult to start when warm, but your starter should be strong enough to turn the engine in that condition with hardly any effort.

When they rebuild starters and alternators these days, they start with a core that someone else turned in, and they test for failed components. Those are all they replace, which means any other components that were close to failing, but hadn't yet, are left alone. This increases the likelyhood that your starter will fail again in the near future. This benefits the store selling the part in two ways: first, it saves them a fortune in costs, which allows them to make a decent profit while still giving you a low price, and second, it pretty much guarantees that you will come back to them when the part fails, and the odds are good that you will have lost your receipt, or will have gone over your warranty period, and bingo, they sell you another part.

The bottom line is unless you have extremely high compression, say 13:1 or higher, you shouldn't have any trouble cranking the engine over, hot or cold.

Take care,
~Chris