After a couple days of pondering while at work, I came home tonight and applied some of the info gleaned here from the "Eliminating vacume advance thread". What I found was, I DO have the vac. advance to manifold vacume, but still had the timing way retarded, in an attempt to enable the car to start when warm. The issue turns out to be, I think, that the starter and selenoid are too hot, the result of the exhaust on the right side dumping right out over the starter. When I again advanced the dist. to where it runs GOOD (ignoring the timing marks, as the cranks mark is WAY up advanced from the mark on the front cover), and set so that operating temp of 190, it would intially restart, the engine does NOT overheat. Ran it in the garage for about 20 minutes getting the timing set, checking the vac port, and so on. I drove it about 20 minutes, at speed, temp never above 195, and then let it idle in the garage another 15-20 minutes, temps stayed less than 200. After that amount of time, it won't restart without a cool down, but I think that's all the starter, not the timing. It fires right up after about a 10 minute span. With the timing set where it is, the engines manners are completely different, much smoother idle, much more responsive, revs much quicker. So, tommorow I'm going to drive the car into town, about a 1/2 hour drive, get the exhaust done, and we'll see what happens. Hopefully, this little issue is solved.
A drive that long may just melt the coatings on the winding and short the starter. Just be prepared with a new starter if required
My '68 427/435 'Vette was the same. It had headers which tucked right up almost against the starter, and would NOT start without a cool down, after being driven more than a few minutes. I've also had put heat shields on other GM starters, and have read of guys using Ford firewall mounted selonoids to get around this, so I'm not alone. This engine has a high torque starter now, that I put on it to try to eliminate this same problem when it was in another car, so I think it's an overheating issue with the starter.
Had the same heat soak problem, heat shields, high torque straters, different starters were all tried, finally went to a external sylenoid (sp) and fixed the issue....
you didn't say what engine is in your ride but I have experienced your problem with chevys Many chevys come with heat shields. Maybe a supper heat shield would solve your problem.
Had the same problem with a 67 olds years ago. I went through 5 starters before i tryed this little trick. Cleaned the starter and sprayed it with vht white paint to reflect the heat instead of absorbing it. Never had a problem after that.
So, I've driven the '36 to work over the weekend, 22 miles each way, and if you count the trip to the muffler shop and driving around the neighborhood, it's got about a hundred miles on it. Time enough for some observations about the cooling system, what's right and what's still wrong. Of note, it now runs at 210 with the ambient temps at 80, it'll go up to about 220 at a light or idling in traffic, and comes back down to 210, slowly, once underway. I have a 180 degree 'stat, and a 14lb cap. Never pukes coolant out of the recovery tank, and never blows thru the cap. First off, the radiator, a '66 Mustang copper, two row V8 radiator is not big enough for the 472. It's the only thing that'll fit behind the grill though, so there's no changing that. The second thing is that the 14" elec. fan I bought doesn't cover enough of the core. I can get a 16" fan in, and still clear the water pump pully by about half an inch. There's no room for a big enough mechanical fan, as the upper hose outlet on the radiator is only 7" from the center of the pulley. The fan, while advertised as being a 2000 CFM as a puller, is nowhere NEAR that. The old saying you get what you pay for is true, although I will say that the thermostat and relay supplied with it work well and would cost as much to buy separately, so I guess I can't complain. The third thing, and I never really considered this, is that airflow in the engine compartment is very poor, as the engine bay is COMPLETELY filled by, well, the engine. With the hood sides buckled down, the engine must almost totally block what air the fan is trying to pull thru the radiator. If there's no place to push air, it can't pull it thru the radiator. Yesterday I left the rear latches undone, and it ran about 10 degrees cooler. Huh. So, here's what I'm going to do. I've ordered a 16" fan, and I'm not cheaping out. I'm pulling the radiator, and having a 5/8 neck installed so I can run a heater core (there's only one heater port in the block) with the 14" fan I have, as an aux radiator mounted under the floor of the trunk above the rear axle. It's not perfect, but it's an idea. I'm also going to run it with the rear hood latches undone to allow a bit more hot air to escape the engine bay. You wouldn't think it'd be a problem, as it's open, but evidently it does matter. I'm also going to wire the fan relay to a constant hot source, rather than the switch, so it'll run after the engine is shut off, so as to help cool things down, which should help the hard cranking when hot issue. It's a nuicance waiting 10 minutes to restart when it's shut off. Does that sound like I've about covered it? Brian Dont' know what happend with the font...
I know it'd be a PIA and cashola...but hows bout a 3 or 4 core? outta a V8 Mustang? You got the room? OR, have your rad recored....
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