I am having problems with a Hot engine re start.

Starting the car from cold, the starter turns over fine and the engines fires up no issues.

Bring the engine up to temperature, turn the engine off and attempt a re start and the starter motor barely turns over, much the same as having a flat battery, although battery is still good as lights etc still operational.

Let the engine cool and try again and the starter once more turns the engine over with ease and it fires up ok.

I have read on another forum about a 3.1 fitted in a Grand Prix that heat tranfer from the near by exhaust was the cause of same issue, although there was no answer to whether the heat caused a problem with the starter motor itself or a heat related failure of the cable/connection from the battery.

Has anyone else experienced similar problems, is this a known issue with the Fiero?

Thanks

Does it crank like this? Too much advance can cause slower cranking.



How to test - Pull both of the two wire plugs off of the ignition coil when the engine is is warm and see if it still cranks slow. If pulling the ignition coil plugs dramatically increases warm cranking speed, check your timing.

[This message has been edited by phonedawgz (edited 11-12-2012).]

likely need heat shield on starter.

Get new from GM, buy from Jeggs etc or many auto parts stores, or just make one.

Check battery cables... Hot starter and cables draws more amps can/will "burn out" the cables... Just get new cable if not sure.
Check shim setup too. See my Cave, Starter

Bad news... likely need a new starter too. Starter can take some heat abuse but will shorten life allot.

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top and bottom of every forum page...)

Yes it barely turns over, it tries to fire, sometimes it pops which it assumes is backfiring through the intake. Timing is set at 10 degs as per recommendation. I will try again with spark disabled tomorrow.

Thanks

If it pops, there could be something messed up with the wires or rotor.

Either a starter worn out and dragging when its hot or timing too advanced. Since your timing is right, have the starter tested. Of course the timing might be right on the crankshaft marks, but Ive heard of the damper pulley slipping on the crank before so the marks are off. An easy way to test the timing is to loosen the locking bolt slightly and turn the distributor slightly to retard direction and try cranking it again.

[This message has been edited by rogergarrison (edited 11-13-2012).]

Started the engine when returned home from work, started first time. Left it idling for 20 mins occasionally operating the throttle. Turned it off few times always restarted. Got it to the point where the fan cut in then turned it off and no restart very slow turn over. Removing the ht lead made no difference to the speed of the engine turn over.

Did you retard the distributor to see if it cranked OK then ? Only takes a 13mm wrench and about 10 seconds.....If it dont make a difference, then your starter is overheating. Those are really the only 2 things that cause it to turn over slow when hot that Ive ever seen.

edit to add....bad battery cable or battery will too. My boat had to have two pos and two neg cables on it to turn over hot. It was a 454 engine with about 15* timing.

[This message has been edited by rogergarrison (edited 11-14-2012).]

When the HT lead from the coil was removed, cranking was still very slow, I tried starting the engine again this morning and cranking speed was a lot quicker and the engine fired.

I will start with the timing retarded test at the weekend as its too dark when I get home from work to mess about with moving the distributor and then resetting the timing again.

Following that I will check/replace the current battery leads and retest.

If the problem is not cured its a new starter and thats not any easy or low cost option as sourcing one in the UK is specialised parts supplier as nothing GM has this engine fitted in Europe.

I have a starter from a 3.4 PR engine that I know is good. Can the front end of starter be swapped with the existing Fiero one to allow it to be mounted in the Fiero.

Thanks

quote Originally posted by stewnew: If the problem is not cured its a new starter and thats not any easy or low cost option as sourcing one in the UK is specialised parts supplier as nothing GM has this engine fitted in Europe. Thanks

GM put that starter on just about everything it built for 20 years. I bet you can find one even in a British junkyard.

Nothing GM has that type of mounting in the UK. Every starter I have seen is bolted through with bolts in the horizontal plane rather than vertical.

GM have been using ECOTEC family engines for years and I think it was the CVH engine before that. Large capacity engines are not the norm here, with fuel prices roughly double what they are in US, 2 litre and below is the norm.

Just use a marker and make a dot on the intake & the distributor case right beside each other before you move it. If it dont help, you can put it back exactly where it is.

I had a problem with a slow starter. It was not that old and worked fine when I installed it. One day I crawled under the car to have a look and found that several of the solenoid nuts had loosened. Tightened everything back up, and no more problem.
The hot/cold issue could be expansion and contraction causing a weak connection.
Hope this helps.