OK this is driving me nuts. Thought I had the solution. When it is in the 70's or lower does not seem to be a problem but in the 90's it's back. Starts cold just fine. Drive it for a few minutes and shut it off it hardly wants to crank. First thought was heat soak to the starter so I put a blanket around it. Next I put a rear facing hood scoop on the decklid and a passenger side side scoop that feeds fresh air to the engine compartment. Still does it. If it's not too hot I can jump it and it helps but not a great deal. Getting a rotten egg smell from the cat too. Running rich? Going back to shop on monday for rack bushing so I guess I'll have it checked then.

If it cools down outside the problem goes away pretty much. I have driven this car for a year and it has not given me as much trouble as it is at the moment with this heat issue.

Ideas? Don't want to take a long trip and get waylaid some where. It's a new crate motor, starter etc. Using a Optima battery.

[This message has been edited by Mike Murphy (edited 08-04-2007).]

Rotten egg smell is an indicator that the engine is running rich, and that the catalytic converter is working really hard to burn off the excess fuel in the exhaust. This creates a great deal of heat in the cat, enough heat to melt the cat infact. If your exhaust is routed like the stock Fiero, (cat below starter) then I would bet that the heat is infact still causing problems with the starter. It's just a guess, but the two could be related.

Exhaust is not routed like Fiero. Drops off of engine at trunk into twin cats then "Y" off into resonator tips. Yeah I know 2 of them but they are down low and in the area where the muffler should be. They are high flow. Today engine seemed to lack power in second and third for a brief period.

[This message has been edited by Mike Murphy (edited 08-04-2007).]

Could it be the heat affecting the battery? Maybe try measuring the voltage at the starter when you have the problem vs when not.

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Dave

www.ltlfrari.com

Battery is up front.

1. What size battery cable are you useing? Too thin + Too long will kill your cranking amps to the starter.
2. Did you do anything with the timming belt? ie replaced or set it. Had the same problem but both banks were TDC at same time. Make it easy on yourself and pull the cam covers off (on throttle body side of block) and make sure the dot's at the end of the cams are NOT in the same position. If they are then one bank is off 180* and will cause a hard start when hot....
3. Starter could be bad. I usually replace brushes and cut the armeture down and polish the contacts....may too complicated if you never done that before.
4. Check cable connections and make sure there is nothing loose/

Good Luck ]

what starter are you using, the early syle or late style? The late syle has more torque. Also, you mentioned the battery being up front, did you run a dedicated heavy gauge ground from the negative on the battery to the engine block? If using the log manifold you will want to fabricate a lower heat shield to protect the starter because the original config front side was cooled in the w body and in the Fiero its pretty much a dead air area ..thats why I recommend mounting the coil paks elsewhere to avoid cooling problems

Using later style starter as this is a 97 NEW CRATE MOTOR so I doubt it is out of time with 2,000 miles on it.

Has a dedicated ground to engine block and additional ground to brake booster bracket.

Starter has a insulation blanket around it.

Coil pack is where stock battery used to be but I have Doug McKinney's full side scoops and the backside of the scoop is enclosed with a stock panel and a snorkel that directs air to the area just under the battery.

Local garage put this in for me and not sure what size cable they used. What gauge size and type is best?

[This message has been edited by Mike Murphy (edited 08-05-2007).]

does it have a direct ground from the battery to the engine or are they grounding through the chassis. I used #2 welding wire when I did mine. I had a direct ground from the battery to a ground point on the pass side strut tower and then earthed everything to that. I also took a second ground from the battery to a bolt on the front end somewhere (jack bracket bolt I think) 'just in case'. I took the power side to the distribution block under C500 then took a #2 wire from that to the starter for the main power.
I still think you should check the voltage at the starter, both when it's ok and when not and if there's any difference work back from that (I still say the heat could be affecting the battery since you are talking ambient heat here, not engine bay heat).
At least checking the voltage will eliminate the battery/cables.

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Dave

www.ltlfrari.com

Do you happen to have another starter around that you can try? I'd bet the starter itself is the problem. I've had several starters over the years do this. And I don't always trust rebuilt units, as I've had a couple of those go bad after a short amount of time.

-Darryl

I have had 2 starters on it since this swap was completed in early 2006. What ever starter gets put on this is going to have this problem until we figure out a solution. Shop wants tp put battery in trunk closer to engine. I don't want it there. I belongs up front where the car needs the weight distribution. It's going in for a rack bushing in the morning so they can play with it then.

Shop says they used #4 wire not # 2 so they are swapping out today for #2. I'm thinking that should solve most of the problem.

UPDATE

MURPHY'S LAW

If anything can go wrong it will. Had shop check terminal wiring. They originally used #2 for the ground and #4 for hot . Now it has # 2 on hot but found loose connection at starter. Also found a bad connection at alternator as factory plug-in was bad. Do you think any of this might cause a problem? Also the set screw for the idle keeps backing off. Add super glue to backside.

I would bet that this should cure a lot of my ills.

[This message has been edited by Mike Murphy (edited 08-06-2007).]