Truck won't start...any ideas while I'm stuck in class?

[TheBigTater]

Hey guys, went to warm the truck up for school this morning and it fired right up and ran for about 5 min. Then the idle dropped to about 500rpm...couple blips of the throttle and it seemed to be running fine again. Put it in gear and went to take off and it immediately sputtered and died. Won't start again now. It is getting fuel, but I didn't get a chance to look any further. Possibly flooded maybe?? It was about 34 degrees this morning. It did this once before at the beginning of the winter and started up just fine about 4 hours later. I got a few more hours at school then I get to take a look at it again. Any ideas in the meantime??? Btw...it's a fairly new crate 350, edelbrock intake, 600cfm Edelbrock 4 barrel carb, stock cam, GM HEI dizzy

 

[Droppedgmc]

i'd make sure she's not flooded first. How long did you let it warm up for? cold blooded sbc's. after that,still no start, check for spark. on a cold morning, I've got to let my '81 warm up for at least 10 min or she'll sputter and die under load

 

[davbell22602]

I'd also check timing too.

 

[CaliDude76]

when it dies, and doesn't turn over.. pull a plug and see if your gettin spark to it. Those HEI units do funny things at different temps. could be a bad one

 

[TheBigTater]

Well, I'm gonna roll the Impala till Saturday. Supposed to be really nice weather so I'll dig into it then. I have a feeling its the HEI. Tried it again a few min ago and there is zero spark. Its warm enough out now that it would normally fire right up. It is cold blooded but it always starts in less than 3 sec of cranking. I'll keep you guys posted once I dig into it. I'll post pix if I find anything interesting.

 

[TheBigTater]

BTW...the dizzy, wires, plugs, motor, etc...is all only 2 years old. Is there any particular common problems with GM HEI's that would manifest even in newer ones? I've never run a HEI before this one.

 

[Old77]

There have been times that I've just had to take the dizzy off and "reseat" it. It's the craziest thing and it's completely clean and free from any oxidation but yet sometimes it just like to be taken off and put back on again

 

[89Suburban]

Module, right Retro?

 

[Droppedgmc]

true to that on could be the module also

 

[TheBigTater]

Ok guys...I spent all day messing with it. Replaced the module, coil, cap, and rotor and still no fire. I put a test light on the batt terminal and I'm getting power to the dizzy. After running back and forth a couple times to the parts store I found that the previous owner used the stock dizzy from the 305 when they put in the 350. Am I missing anything here?? Would it be worth just buying a new 1 wire HEI and throwing that in?

 

[crazy4offroad]

There's a "pick-up" coil deeper down inside the distributor, that's usually the last link in the chain. You get to it from the top side.

 

[Irishman999]

Check the ground prong inside the cap, it grounds to the metal part of the coil. If that is in place I have a distributor for sale, all cleaned up and ready to go.

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Its out of my 305 so it had the dumb ass four wire pig tail for the knock sensor but I made an internal jump wire and sealed all the connectors with heat shrink wrap.Everything is cleaned and greased with a new cap+rotor. Included is the coil, all works definitely.

 

[towman]

and you are all going to think i am crazy, if the cap has a wire plugged into the cap beside the power wire try unplugging that wire, that space on the cap is for a tach wire but have seen many a truck have a wire in that spot with no tach, i bought a truck for 300 after the guy put all new parts in it and still no spark, unplugged the wire and instant spark, have seen it happen at least 5 times in my career

 

[TheBigTater]

Towman, I'll give it a try in the morning...I don't think you're crazy at all. I hooked up a tach about 6 months ago to that terminal. Its worth a shot, for sure. Irish, I'll be in touch if this doesn't work out

 

[89Suburban]

Damn, still ain't figured out? ****.....