Hot start problem

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Mike25th

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I have a 72 Pontiac lemans just had new powermaster starter installed, Optima battery and timing done. Still have problems with slow cranking when hot. Ang ideas where to start next.

Thanks
 
Battery cable is 4gauge and probably at least 10 years old. No headers or exhaust leaks.
 
I did also wrap the mini starter in a heat shield
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What is your initial timing set to?
 
Back to battery cables. Did you check ground connection on block for clean connection? Did you carefully look at the battery cable terminals for corrosion under the insulation at the terminal? What group number Optima did you use, 78?
 
group number says 34-78
The positive cable terminal was cracked I replaced that with a new one. Everything looks prettty good. I’m wondering if I should recheck total timing. I was shooting for 32-33 degrees. Does that sound right?

I have a MSD HEI billet distrubuter
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Total mechanical timing at about 2.8k to 3k rpm should be 36 with vacuum advance disconnected.
 
I may have a dumb question by setting or changing my total timing won’t that change my initial timing that I already setup?
 
Mike25th said:
I may have a dumb question by setting or changing my total timing won’t that change my initial timing that I already setup?
Click to expand...
Correct it will but say 12 degrees initial will not cause a hot start problem especially on a low compression engine
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melsg5 said:
Correct it will but say 12 degrees initial will not cause a hot start problem especially on a low compression engine
Click to expand...

melsg5 said:
Correct it will but say 12 degrees initial will not cause a hot start problem especially on a low compression engine
Click to expand...
Ok just changed to 36 degrees total seems to run well. The only thing now is that my initial timing does not line up on the mark on my harmonic balancer at all.
 
Mike25th said:
Ok just changed to 36 degrees total seems to run well. The only thing now is that my initial timing does not line up on the mark on my harmonic balancer at all.
Click to expand...
Do you have vacuum advance connected?
Are you using a dial back timing light?
Do you have the instructions for the MSD distributor showing what springs/bushings to use?
 
I found instructions for your distributor.
You should be using one silver and one blue spring.
Your distributor comes stock with the 21 degree blue advance stop bushing. So if you set total mechanical to 36, initial will be 15.
Your other choice is the silver bushing which would give you 11 initial.
 
melsg5 said:
Do you have vacuum advance connected?
Are you using a dial back timing light?
Do you have the instructions for the MSD distributor showing what springs/bushings to use?
Click to expand...
Vac is disconnected. I am using a dial back timing light. My MSD says 21 degree springs
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Mike25th said:
Vac is disconnected. I am using a dial back timing light. My MSD says 21 degree springs
Click to expand...
You mean 21 degree advance stop bushing giving you 15 initial when total is 36. Springs only control rpm not amount of advance and you should be using one silver spring and one blue spring.
 
melsg5 said:
You mean 21 degree advance stop bushing giving you 15 initial when total is 36. Springs only control rpm not amount of advance and you should be using one silver spring and one blue spring.
Click to expand...
Yes that is correct
 
Appreciate all your help on this I’ll see how it runs and starts with the setup.
 
Stretched timing chain is a possibility, throw a breaker bar on the crank bolt take the dist cap off and rotate both ways looking at the rotor, I stopped using 4ga cables on my cars even with nothing wrong after cranking if you feel the cables they get warm. This is where I get all my cables awesome place. I use minimum 2ga or 1/0

Battery Cables - Custom Made Battery Cables

www.batterycablesusa.com www.batterycablesusa.com
 
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