Today I finally had the time to swap out my Duraspark for an igniter III (works amazing) and swap my stuck open thermostat so my car would run above 130*. After resetting the timing I took it out for a short 15 minute drive and it performed great. Then came back and swapped the T-stat, burped the system and took it out for about 45min. It stayed right at 190* the whole way and drove better than ever. Got back and parked it outside the garage to clean up my coolant mess then went to restart it and it wouldn't start. Had fuel, had spark, cranked but would barely even sputter. Let it cool down to about 150* and closed the choke (manual) and floored the gas and eventually got it to start and die. Opened the choke and it fired up and after feathering the gas for a few seconds idled just fine. So what gives? I was planning on driving it to church tomorrow, but I may not if its going to be temperamental. Setup is a 302 with dual plane intake, edelbrock four barrel on a 2" spacer and Pertronix igniter III ignition. Stock manual fuel pump.
Sounds like fuel related, since you feathered the pedal and it then idled. Or a loose Pertronix wire on the coill, the coil wire itself? I'm sure you checked out that... clogged fuel filter? Timing slipped?? Distributor loose? Simple thing first... Occam's Razor. Almost out of gas?? That's all i got..
All ignition wires good, consistent spark, tight dizzy, freshly cleaned fuel system, full tank of gas. Vapor lock?
Check the coil. Had problems with mine a while back, acting like yours, and found that with the electronic ignition, you need a low resistance coil, or they overheat and die. Mine also killed a Mallory module, so be carefull. I went to an ignitor 11 module and Pertronix distributer, and a MSD low res coil. Runs great. Good luck!
That's pretty vague, Earl.. Pertronix will run on 6 - 15 volts no problem, you just don't get the full benefits unless it's given a 12V coil
sounds like you flooded the motor. when the motor turned off it could have been hot enough to have boiled off the gas in carb. this can flood the motor. or you could have pushed the throttle too many times before you tried starting. to clear out a flooded motor you need to floor the gas pedal and then crank it. it should take about 10-20 sec. to fire off then it will run rough while it clears out all the gas. dont crank longer than 30 sec at a time. this will over heat the starter, cables and solenoid.
Did you get something wet? I blew a heater hose the other night coming from work and it soaked the engine, I got out and cut the heater hose off where it split and reconnected it but car wouldn't start. sprayed WD40 under dist. cap and on coil, still no go called tow truck, next day started right up but I took the water hose to it to find out what prevented it from starting and wet one thing at a time while it was running, ran fine wetting everything except when I wet the altenator...it died very suddenly, with all the water let loose when you changes thermo. it might have just condensed off the hot engine and got moisture someplace, maybe worth a look.
What Bryant is saying sounds exactly like what happened. Today when I started it I cranked it with the gas floored, manipulating the choke a bit and after about 10 seconds it fired up and took a little throttle to stay going, then smoothed out another 10 seconds later. As for the coil it is a brand new pertronix flame thrower III so that shouldn't be it. So whats the fix then?
