sharkthehunter77

Theres a Navy Dive school on Ford island on Pearl Harbor I'm training up for and so yesterday i hopped in my blk 77 and headed down to the base pool for some 800 meters of side stroke action. The weather on the islands has been very hot for normally temperate Hawaii, high 80's ,low 90's as apposed to mid 70,s or what ever. The blsack vette sat in the parking lot for almost an hour while a dodged non swimming Marines and toddlers taking lessons. I was planning on taking my standard post swim two mile run when the darn car wouldnt start, wouldnt even turn over. Lights yes,...horn yes,.. radio,... yes,...but no start,.. no turn over.
What made the situation kind of humiliating was the fact that parked to cars down from me was a DSM eclipse i'd walked the same morning on the freeway to work. I knew the Marine in the ricer DSM wanted a sort of rematch at some point. The vette that walked him near 110 mph just a few hours before was living up to its domestic Chevy reputation and not moving, i knew he kind of thougt it was funny.
So, I left the car there and went back to work. During breaks i tried calling everybody i could think of. Even tried to get the car towed to the base auto hobby shop but dude wanted $50.00 to tow the car less then a mile. The hot rod shop was busy with several hot rods. My buddy at the corvette clinic was/is booked up for a couple weeks and the mechanic he suggested was even more busy. Finally decided to have her towed back to my apartment near Pearl and just deal with it another day. I transited the distance to the main gate on foot and proceeded to wait the 15 min for the tow truck. Only 15 minutes turned into three hours as Murphy kicked in and every car on the island apperently broke down! So, finally at 6:30 PM my tow arrives, i get the guy on base and we get to my vette,..........only to have the car start right up like there never was anything wrong with it! Now mind you the original no start time was about noon on a 90 degree day. I tried again an hours later ( still hot as hell) and again around 4 PM. I'm convinced the heat from the moddiefied ZZ4 and headers is toasting /has toasted my starter motor and am scouring the islands for either a heat shield a new high heat resistant starter or both. Its funny with these old cars, i was walking turbo'ed DSM at over 100mpr that morning, stuck next to the same car at noon yet still managed to get home under my own power near dark. Vette are are like the Navy ,..not just a job but an adventure!!!!!

Crash80

I went down this road a while back with my '80. Drove it, came back to it after about an hour or so and no start. It cranked and cranked but would not fire. Didn't even act like it was trying to fire. The next morning I have it towed over to the place that works on my car when I can't or don't have time to fool with it. I pay the tow guy and head off to work. The guy that works on my car calls a few hours later and asks why I brought the car over to him. I give him the run down and he says it fired right up for him. He checked fuel pressure and the filter but said everything looked good. I still don't know why the car did what it did. I felt like an idiot going to pick it up, so I can feel your pain.

comp

gotta let them cool and see if they start

Gordonm

The starter is a heat soak problem. A very common problem on Chevys with headers. I have had this on several cars. I finally wised up and bought a GM mini starter. It has never let me down since. I have had it on very hot days with the engine very hot and it cranks right over.

The Dude

Starter solenoid heat soak. Lots of people will give you fixes, but if it happens again in the meantime, just get a hose and run water over the starter motor and solenoid. People will think you're crazy, but you'll be on your way in 10 minutes.

stingr69

Yup, you need a heat shield for the solenoid and a F*rd relay. It is a problem that has been common for many years.

Run the original "start" wire to the "s" terminal on the F*rd relay, run a 10 Ga stranded copper wire from the fat terminal on the GM starter to one of the fat terminals on the F*ord relay and run another 10 Ga wire from the other fat terminal on the F*ord relay to where the "start" wire used to connect to the GM starter. The F*rd relay must be grounded.

This cheap non-invasive mod sends a full 12V to the GM starter by bypassing the heavy resitance in the GM wiring harness/circuit. If you can start the car by jumping the starter using a screwdriver, this is the fix for you.

Moroso sells an insulated aluminum sandwich heat shield for the starter. You will probably need to pull the starter to install it.

-Mark.