I have a remanufactured engine that I'm prepping for initial startup. Following the manufacturers instructions to purge all air, I turned the ignition to crank the starter. I'm suppose to do this for 2 minutes minimum [edit] WITHOUT SPARE PLUGS INSTALLED. The first try it turned over for a couple of seconds. The 2nd time I tried I got nothing, so suspecting the battery, I took it to AutoZone. They ended up giving me a brand new one because the old one was still under warranty. I tried again but still nothing. So - what to do? I was hoping to fire this baby up on Saturday.

[This message has been edited by jwalker (edited 02-19-2010).]

The solenoid may have died. As easy as the starter is to remove, I'd just pull it and take it to a parts place and have it tested. New gear-reduced starters from O'Reilly Auto Parts run about $55. I wouldn't trust Autozone parts for something like that...

Edit: And you weren't cranking it over but for a few seconds at a time, right? Cranking it for too long without a cool-down can kill them.

[This message has been edited by Alibi (edited 02-18-2010).]

When I installed my 3.4 V6 crate engine, the engine was put together so tight that the starter could only turn it a little bit before it bogged down and stopped. I ended up removing all the spark plugs (and the fuel pump fuse), putting a squirt of oil in each cylinder, and cranking the engine for a couple minutes with the spark plugs removed. That loosened it up enough to start with the spark plugs re-installed.

I forgot to mention in my original post: WITHOUT SPARE PLUGS INSTALLED- so it won't fire up. But 2 minutes does seem like a very long time - that has to be hard on a starter.

Don't run the starter continuously. Crank the engine for 15-20 seconds at a time, giving it a couple minutes to cool down in between.

Excuse me if this is a really dumb question, but should there be a arc across the distributor and the nearest metal point when I crank it over? Besides seeming very dangerous, it just doesn't seem right. I know all that current has to go somewhere. I think I should skip this part and just put in the spark plugs.

Unless you unplug the dist. or coil it still going to fire the coil. since there are not plug wires connected to plugs the current has to find somewhere to go so your going to see sparks. I'd unplug the coil connectors.