hard to restart
 

Ok, I have another question maybe somebody can answer for me, my GTO probably has run maybe only a few hours since it was overhauled total. It has a new starter/battery ect... When the engine is cold, it turns over easily and fires right up. After the engine is well warmed up, if I shut it down then try to restart it after 5 minutes or so it wont turn over hardly. After it cools off, it turns over fine and fires right up again. Its like the starter has a hard time turning the engine over after its warmed up. Im pretty sure the problem isnt with the starter, I had the battery and the alternator checked, no problem. Not a fuel or spark problem. All I can think of is that when its warmed up the tolerances are less and that makes it harder to turn over. Has this ever happened to anybody? Thanks in advance.

A starter draw test will tell you how much current the starter is pulling. But more than likely you have the famed" hot soak selenoid "problem. First make sure your battery terminals are in good shape and at least a #4 guage. Especially the ground, make sure you have a good contact with the ground ,at the engine. You could wrap the starter with a therminal insulation barrier like they use in the floor boards and secure it with a large screw clamp. or make a heat shield to deflect the heat from the starter. your last choice is a hi-torque starter, or a remote selenoid kit for your starter like the one ford uses.

two words: heat shield. I had this problem for a while, espically when I went to ram air exh manifolds and the starter is unshielded. happend to me all the time until I put a heat shield on it, now it never happens. Pontiacs throw a lot of heat, and if you don;t have a ram air heat shiled on it the starter will heat soak and the car won't be able to start. I think perf. years stocks the heat shield if your starter is stock. Otherwise just make one or get one from your local speed shop.

Thanks guys! I would have never thought of that one. It is a very plausible explanation as I changed the exhaust manifolds to those factory HO ones and that may explain why this wasnt a problem before. Ill get that shield on order now and hopefully its not too hard to put on myself. Does the starter have to come off to install it or is it something that just slides between the starter and the block?

Had the same problems, had my starter rebuilt as a high torque starter with and new solenoid, heavier duty I think, solved my problem for $60.
What a difference with the high torque. Didn't need to go with the heat shield or change any battery cables, but I'm sure those would certainly help it from re-occuring.

typically when they rebuild the stock starters as high torque units with new modern components, the new components are smaller than what they are replacing and the casing acts as a heat shiled because there is more room inside the starter.

The 1 gauge cable helps in all but the dead of summer, I still had hot start problems in july and august while at the track.

It should be noted that factory ram air cars came from GM with the heat shields in place. not sure about HO cars but I don't see why they wouldn't, both the HO and ram air manifolds run really close to the starter.

that's your problem - going to the HO manifolds puts the starter closer to a lot more heat

i had the same problem when i went to those HO manifolds

And a heat shield, nor a heat blanked didn't solve it for me - i had to go to a high torque mini starter (could probably get by with the rebuilt ones)
heat shield and blanked only delayed the problem by another hour

save yourself the trouble of having to do the job 3 times and just start with a mini starter - they're nice little toys

ron has one for sale in the performance parts section

Someone on this board posted this link some time ago. I'm going to do this mod over the winter, although I'm going to try my best and hide it so I can maintain the stock look. Maybe someone has some ideas about where to mount the new solenoid.
http://www.madelectrical.com/catalog/st-1.shtml

Yeah, thats my problem, the car is kinda useless if Im afraid to restart the damn thing. If I need gas, I have to go to the station near my house asap so the engine doesnt heat up or I have the same problem you describe. I ordered the blanket and will see how that does and if that doesnt work, the mini-starter is next.

Well, to hell with it, just ordered a new IMI high torque starter. Am I going to have any clearance issues with my HO exhaust manifolds? Thanks in advance.

i didn't

as long as you mean the HO exhaust manifolds = ram air manifolds from the factory - the repo's

that should clear headers too, though
so you should be ok

I installed the IMI mini starter with the stock wires and HO manifolds. No problems at all.

Thats what Im going with, thanks for the help!

I had the same problems and bought the IMI starter. What a difference. I bought one of the other starters when I was in a pinch one time and it didn't work nearly as well. I ended up replacing it with an IMI unit. They seen to work the best... for me anyway.

Run the fatter cable too.