I have a 1980 with the stock 350 and a new Edlebrock carb. I have been chasing what I thought was a fuel related problem for the last 1 1/2 years and now I am thinking it could be my distributor. First start of the day is perfect, however after a normal run and I let the car sit for a short time it is hard to start. I thought I was boiling my fuel but now I am wondering if I have a spark problem. This is most noticable during summer months. Can any one shed some light on this for me please? Could my coil be weak and the heat is causing a lack of power? Thanks, Mark.

 

I suspect your problem is neither fuel or ignition related.

It sounds to me like you have a bad solenoid on your starter. Commonly referred to as heat soak, the engine lags when hot starting...barely turning or even not all.

The fix is easy, and you are gonna be pissed you wasted over a year chasing this problem.

The simplest and easiest way it to just replace the starter with a new one. You can even buy a bag that wraps around the starter and protects it from heat.

Also, if you are going to the trouble of replacing the starter you might as well use one of the later model mini starters like found on Gen2 and Gen3 engines.

That should solve your problem assuming everything else is still dialed in correctly.

Here's the starter and part #:

 

I understand what your saying but the engine turns over just fine. The starter does hang up slightly after I stop cranking, I can hear an after sound like the starter is slow disengaging, but the engine turns over and over until it finally starts and thats when I get a puff of smoke like its fluded. All a long I thought maybe I was boling, and maybe I am, but I got to thinking that maybe I was lacking spark.

If what you are saying is my problem, wouldn't I notice that the starter is dragging or not in gauging at all? Thanks, Mark.

 

I guess I should have asked if the engine had a hard time turning when this happened. I assumed that from hard start.

My bad.

It's possible the coil is your problem. Luckily it's cheap and easy to replace. Probably a good idea anyway if it's the stock 27 year old coil.

When was the last time any of the ignition system was changed? Plugs, wires, cap, rotor, coil...

 

Recreate your hard starting condition.

Ignition
Pull a plug wire off and connect to a new good plug, lay the side of plug anywhere it has good ground. Crank engine over and see if there is spark. If there is you have probably fuel problems.

Fuel
If it doesn't start instantly, carefully disconnect fuel line at carb with rag under it to collect the little spilled gas, Carefully unbolt carb and lift up slowly and level. Check for fuel puddling in intake plenum.
If there is no fuel spilling when you remove fuel line, it may have syphoned back out of fuel bowl when hot.

Determine which symtom you have and then go from there.

 

I purchased the car 1 1/2 years ago and I had the plugs and plug wires changed. I replaced the old re-built carb with a new Edlebrock carb and a new intake manifold. Later I discovered that someone had welded the heat risor valve in the closed position so I had that removed completely. I have added an in line fuel regulator and some what re-routed my gas line trying to get it away from any direct heat source. The altenator has new diod's and I have checked my fuel pump and return lines. As far as the distributor goes I just opened it up this last weekend. There was wear on the rotor so I filed it and also cleaned up the contacts in the distributor cover. I originally had a brief hesitation when starting off from a stop but I noticed that this is now gone. From looking at the distributor cap I would say it is either original or many years old, at least I think. I was wondering about the coil. I see where they have new high voltage coils but I don't know if this is something I need or just replace what I have. Can the coil be getting hot and causing a lack of spark? Originally I had roughly 15 minutes after shuting down the car to be able to re-start it without the crank, crank, crank, but now it appears as if that has decressed to about 5 or so minutes. When I thought I might be boiling my gas I started poping my hood open as soon as I hit the garage to let the heat out but that didn't help a thing. That's when I started thinging that it might be distributor related.

 

Do the tests, it's better than guessing.

 

Not trying to highjack, but my 80 did this before I parked it a few years back. I was convinced it was a fuel issue. Siphoning had been mentioned, how is this problem fixed??

 

If running a qjet, use the in carb fuel filter with the check valve built in.

A more reliable method is to change your needle and seat assembly to one with no "windows", available in the better kits.

 

This does sound identical to my problem. I had the Edelbrock carb as well. Once the engine finally picked up fuel it would start and run fine. Being both carbs (his and mine) were brand new, is there a correction with the seat that can be made, or is there an internal fuel filter that offers a check valve??

 

One of the main reasons I changed my carb was the fact that it was hard to start after running it and parking it for over 15 minutes. I found that the new Edlebrock didn't make any differance with that problem. I've had the Edlebrock pulled off and checked for leaks and it checked out just fine. I have tried putting on a thicker insulated carb gasket but there isn't enough room under the hood for it.

How do you know if your distributor cap has a crack in it if it's not visable?