OK so here's the down n dirty...I rebuilt my 350, relocated the battery to the trunk and I started having problems starting the car when its hot. It starts no problem cold, but when hot it it turns over acouple times then drags, repeat, repeat,etc... So I put a high torque mini starter on thinking heat soak in the starter. But no, same problem. Where is this problem? Any ideas? I'm out. Please help :mad: :(

Since you put the bat in the trunk maybe you didn't use the correct guage wiring and the amps are low at the starter:Or you just have a bad connection now that you moved it.

As mentioned, you should be running a good gauge of wire for the "+" side of things

Also, don't forget the ground. I have seen many cars need a ground from the battery to the frame rail in the rear, AND a ground strap from the starter (use one of the attachment bolts) to the frame rail up front, too.

Could this hold true? Even though the car starts fine cold? I have a ground strap from the battery to the rear bumper bolt. and one from the water neck on the block to the frame in front. So why only when hot? I'll try a temp front mount batery rto find out.

Could be...

Generally, metals will have a higher resistance when they heat up...This holds true for the copper in your starter, the iron of your engine block that the starter is grounding through, etc.

There are also other items to look at...is the timing too advanced at startup? vapor lock or a leaky carb that floods the engine at hot start?

Let us know what you find

AZ it is very true!!!! I bet that one of your wires(cables) is getting very hot. You are dealing with a concept known as voltage drop. If you still need help let me know and I can provide some info.

I had the same problem when I re-located my battery to the trunk also. I just wired in a remote (F*RD) starter solenoid. No problems for the past 10 years. I am also using a stock Delco starter that is at least 20 years old!!!!
Brian

What guage wire are you using? I think you'd need a minimum of 2/0 wire for all connections. 3/0 or 4/0 would be better. The typical wire that will come on the car is somewhere around 2 guage which is quite light.

Disconnect the ignition and have someone crank it over for 10 seconds or so as you check for heat at the different wire connections. If you find a hot spot that's the likely culprit. Do this when it's cold to make it easier to find the hot connection. If everything is good, there should be no noticable heating in any of the wiring.

A bad connection will rapidly heat-up and as it heats it's resistance also goes up so the connection allows less and less power to pass through it. That's why it works for a few revolutions of the engine.

The Ford solenoid will not help. You have a voltage drop problem and it can't cure that. If the solenoid will engage the starter every time you turn the key a Ford solenoid will not fix the problem you have. Your starter will engage and try to crank the engine. If the starter will not engage at all, it may MASK the real problem so that it works.

Peter

It also depends on what cranking amp your battery is!!! If you had a (lets say) 500 cca battery that started the car fine when it was in located in the engine compartment, but not from the trunk. You may have to goto a bigger cca battery. ALSO...when your motor gets hot, everything EXPANDS...thus making the motor tighter (piston/wall clearance) which WILL cause it to start harder.
The Ford solenoid will not help. You have a voltage drop problem and it can't cure that. If the solenoid will engage the starter every time you turn the key a Ford solenoid will not fix the problem you have. Your starter will engage and try to crank the engine. If the starter will not engage at all, it may MASK the real problem so that it works. As far as this goes....I went thru the EXACT problem you have now, over 10 years ago....and my FINAL FIX was to install a remote starter solenoid.
I had re-located the battery to the trunk during my motor rebuild, used the same battery and connections etc. AND it would only start when cold!!! As soon as it would heat up...it would crank hard. I even tried a heat shield!!!
I am using a 1 gauge(I think, could be a 2 gauge :confused: ) from the trunk to the solenoid. The battery is grounded to the frame as well as a ground strap from the frame to the block.
Like I said before..... No problems for the past 10 years. I am also using a stock Delco starter that is at least 20 years old!!!!
Brian

Originally posted by CHELKAMINO:
It also depends on what cranking amp your battery is!!! If you had a (lets say) 500 cca battery that started the car fine when it was in located in the engine compartment, but not from the trunk. You may have to goto a bigger cca battery.
Brian [/QUOTE]
Not too sure I agree with this. Is this easy to explain why?

I had a low cca amp battery when I put the battery in the trunk. I changed NOTHING ELSE!!! I ran the positive cable to the kill switch then one to the starter. Grounded it like I posted above and the car would only start when cold. As soon as it got hot it would put a strain on the battery. Went to a larger cca battery, which helped tremendsly(<<<big word-spelled wrong graemlins/clonk.gif ) but did not fix the problem with the hot start. I even tried a heat shield on the starter....helped a little!!!! I mounted the F#RD solenoid in a cool place int the engine compartment away from the headers, wired it up.
I have had no problems----EVER SINCE!!!!
BTW.........I am running a fairly potent sb with 11:1 comp. and 18 degrees on the crank, 22 degrees on the dist.>>>>>40 total!!! Stock Delco starter that is AT LEAST/OVER 20 years old!!!
Never rebuilt!!!!
I'm just trying to help the guy out, and trying to prove my point that it isn't TOO difficult of a problem to pinpoint!!!
Brian

From a practical point of view, the Ford solenoid is just a switch. Putting a switch in the power wire going to the starter will not magically provide more power to the starter so that it cranks better. Something else must have been changed at the same time to make this work (jumper stock starter terminals??).

I really believe you have a poor connection in your wiring. That mini-starter should be able to crank it no problem if it's properly connected to a good battery.

I did read the part about you installing a high-torque mini-starter on it but I'll say this part anyways;

The ONLY problem that the Ford solenoid fixes is the heat soak in the solenoid. The stock solenoid gets so hot that it won't energize (pull-in) because the wiring to it (that 12 gauge purple wire to the S terminal) can't provide enough voltage and current to energize it. If your solenoid always engages then this isn't the problem and the Ford solenoid won't fix it. Once the solenoid engages the voltage on it must drop substantially for it to de-energize so once energized it will stay energized.

The power switch in the solenoid may be poor but this means that you should install a new GM solenoid on the starter to fix it.

If you are having problems with the starter (solenoid) engaging when hot then you just need to provide a means to get more power to the S terminal on the solenoid.

The Ford solenoid is a patch that makes the stock starter work. It's the right idea but switching the main power wire was never the real problem. It's also not the universal starter fix-all bandage that it's sometimes made out to be.

Peter