New dilemma. starts cold, barely turns after driving.

My 316 is acting up. When I bought the car it was fine. I would turn it on and drive and turn it right back on. I just replaced the carb mounting gasket and got rid of my leak, and now the car starts fine when its been sitting but when it gets warm and I try to fire it up again it turns as if the battery is drained.

It had sat 1 week without being ran, but other than that and a new gasket, nothing major changed. It idles fine and drives fine, just doesnt turn when it's warmed up.

 

Is your distributor advance stuck causing excessing timing advance? Would totally cause those symptoms. But really, so will a bunch of stuff. Right now you don't really know if it's actually turning over hard, or if the starter/cables are protesting.

Good luck

 

Have not checked the timing. I want to say it is the starter/cables or even my battery ground cause it started fine any condition last week.

 

I know you said you didn't change this, but check the timing with a light. I tried to set mine by ear and it acted just like yours. Set it correctly with a light and now it's fine. What can it hurt to check, eh?

 

My first guess is a weak battery. How old is it. Cold ,it doesnt need the cranking amps. Then would be battery cables, but before all that, when its warm check out the timing as stated but I doubt thats it. Try a different battery out of a different car that is known to be good.

 

I had an old F100 that used to do that. I pulled off the battery cables and polished the ends on all of them. I then went to the starter solenoid and did the same thing. Starter post as well. I never had the problem since. Something else to do while you're in there is to make sure the engine is grounded like it was from the factory. It differes from car to car, but I think the general idea is to have a ground strap from the block to the frame of the car, and have the negative battery cable go from the battery to the block. Be sure to polish the block and the frame where the cable/ strap goes and that sucker will turn over fast!

On the other hand I was thinking the vacuum advance had stuck, or the distributor loosened up and moved a touch.

Good luck, and I hope you find the problem.

 

Well news to the story. The water in the battery was empty. Maybe it finally killed the battery?

 

Didn't do it a bit of good that's for sure. If more than 2 years old replace it .

 

I don't even know how old I'll have to look tomorrow. Morning comes i'm going to check the wires and the timing. If that doesnt fix it I will replace battery and check the starter.

 

That changed the amount of vacuum applied to your advance, changing your effective timing. The battery certainly isn't helping, but those cells didn't go dry overnight.

That's my take any way.

 

I had the same problem. Was the ground wire. They're tricky.

 

Come on, no water in the battery? How the hell do you expect it to start it? Get a new one, you've probably fried this one.

 

I am going to go with this answer. Hope the timing fixes it. The PO even had the carb adjusted for the massive vacuum leak as well so the timing is probably way off.. They actually had the old blown apart gasket on backwards too.



Yea i know i know no water isnt a good thing i just never checked unfortunately. Stupid mistake.

 

Ok. 1st things 1st. Got to get the battery tested. I hooked up jumper cables and it started on the 1st key turn. After a minute of warming up I stepped on the gas and let go..... it stumbled and died. I'm leaning towards a timing and carb adjustment issue.

 

When i set the timing, will it be the same as normal or will it be different due to the crane cam electronic ignition?

 

Cam won't change the timing, and if the electronic ignition is simple OEM type stuff like an HEI or a pertronix just unplug the vacuum can before timing it. Good luck