I just swapped a 350 crate motor for a worn out 305 out of a 88 camaro. It will start and run. It is missing and seems like it is only running on 7 cylinders. When I first started cranked it the little black ground wire that goes from the ground on the battery to the frame, started smoking and tried to melt. I disconnected the positive side and waited a few moments then reconnected it. It didn’t do it again. After a few hours of trying to get it to run smoothly, I replaced the plug wires. (I’m positive It is wired correctly. I have triple checked it over the last week) Today after starting it a couple of times it made some clicking noises when I tried to start it, an then would not start again. Everything had power, (lights, wipers etc,) but no power was getting to the engine. I thought it might be the selniod on the starter so I swapped it out with the one from a truck. The problem still was there. After swapping the starters back, It tried to crank. But it was real slow and the little black wire tried to melt again. Would anyone have an idea what could be causing this problem? Also, if I have the timing 180 out will it run? If I have the timing a couple of teeth off with it run? It ran very consistent. I drove it a couple of miles down the road and put gas in it. But it stalled every time I came to a stop. Could I have it out of time ad it still run Any ideas or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Kevin Georgia

You've got a poor connection between your battery ground cable and the engine. The starter was getting its ground through that little wire - not a good thing to try.

Pull all your plugs and see if one is damaged or is obviously not firing. Check under your distributor cap for cracks or carbon tracks.

Thanks for the response.

I taped up the black wire that connects from the ground on the battery to the frame. And, cleaned the connection. But before I did so, I changed the plugs and started her up and it ran markedly well. I too it for a drive down the street and it seems to run very good. However, I stalled out just down the street and I struggled to get it restarted and drove home.

I have not tightened the distributor down all the way to allow me to adjust it back a forth. When trying to restart is with the distributor turned clockwise the wire started smoking and burning again. Once I got it back home I then cleaned and taped it up. My question is does the distributor have anything to do with it doing that?

Now, The car will not even attempt to start. The battery has plenty of juice, the lights, wipers and everything works fine, the engine will not turn over. It did this the other day also. After it had sit a while it started up. I cannot figure that one out.

I don’t want to be a pest, but any suggestions will be helpful.

Kevin, in Georgia

Well, Kevin...I think you identified your own problem. Hopefully we caught it in time.

If you can turn the distributor with hand force (1 hand pound of force) at idle, imagine what the engine can do at several hundred foot pounds of torque? Every time you gave it throttle, that increased the torque that much more, moving your distributor.

I ruined a cam in my old 383, YEARS ago trying to figure out exactly what you describe your engine as doing. It turned out, my girlfriends ex had popped my hood, and loosened the distributor, and resulted in that. It ran fine the first day, but after about 3 days of running, it got worse and worse, it finally gave up, and wiped the lobes because of low oil pressure. When I pulled the engine apart, I found 2 lobes that were perfectly round!

Re-time the engine, tighten your distributor, and see if she runs good. I bet that is the cure.