If it's a street-driven car only, it should have a functional choke, and it should have a street advance curve built into the distributor, including both vacuum advance and mechanical advance. None of that locked-out advance crap.
My Chevelle had a mild 10:1 496 BBC and ran mid-11's in the 1/4 mile. I pushed the accelerator to the floor ONCE to provide one stroke of fuel via the accelerator pump and to set the choke. The engine then fired IMMEDIATELY upon engaging the starter, no matter how long the car might have sat.
I think you're going down the wrong path with all these voltage tests and what-not. It's a simple tuning issue.
Mike
Posts: 1592 | Location: Marietta, GA | Registered: December 09, 2005
Originally posted by SlyFox: If it's a street-driven car only, it should have a functional choke, and it should have a street advance curve built into the distributor, including both vacuum advance and mechanical advance. None of that locked-out advance crap.
My Chevelle had a mild 10:1 496 BBC and ran mid-11's in the 1/4 mile. I pushed the accelerator to the floor ONCE to provide one stroke of fuel via the accelerator pump and to set the choke. The engine then fired IMMEDIATELY upon engaging the starter, no matter how long the car might have sat.
I think you're going down the wrong path with all these voltage tests and what-not. It's a simple tuning issue.
Thanks Mike, This car hasn't had a choke for all the years he's owned it. It's only driven in decent weather and this starting issue started about a year ago. The distributor isn't locked but only has centrifugal advance. He put a new HEI in it but the old one didn't have vacuum advance either.
Posts: 465 | Location: Maryland | Registered: January 23, 2007
Unless the wiring is in really poor condition, I would doubt the voltage drop issue. That said, a stock Chevelle would have had a resistor limiting voltage to the stock points/external coil ignition, whereas HEI requires a full 12v. Hope he gets it fixed whatever it turns out to be. I still think he'll enjoy the car more if he adds the Holley electric choke, tunes it, adds vacuum advance, etc. Easy to do with HEI.
EDIT: You mention Painless wiring, so this car has been re-wired. The old resistor wire is probably a non-issue.This message has been edited. Last edited by: SlyFox,
Mike
Posts: 1592 | Location: Marietta, GA | Registered: December 09, 2005
9.1 volts at the HEI while cranking seems low to me. I would check at the battery while cranking if you’re seeing 11v at the battery and 9 at the HEI he likely has some wiring that has bad connection. If he is seeing 9v at the battery while cranking he has a bad battery.
I suspect that he also has Carburetor problems also.
Meziere Tech. Make sure your water pump is on whenever you check your coolant level.
Posts: 267 | Location: Escondido | Registered: July 01, 2011
