I talked to a mechanic who i work with at the wild animal park ( we service all vehicles in house ) about why my car doesn't start everytime. he said that since i've replaced the whole ignition sys, cleaned the injectors, and the starter isn't suffering from heat soak then it's either

- me needing to replace sensors that tell the engine how much fuel and air it gets based on the registered temperature

or

- a matter of needing an aftrmrkt chip since i have a hot cam & TES headers and other fun stuff

Has anyone else had that fix a hot start problem ? my car starts great when it's cold but if it's been running then i have to let it cool down for 15-20 minutes or it just cranks and cranks and cranks but never catches ... no fuel going into engine basically =/


any help is appreciated :hail: ... a lot

 

I asked the same question almost. I was told aftermarket chips are crap and you should buy a custom burned one. I thought the only thing the chips do is advance the timing when at WOT or soemthing like that.

 

sounds like my car the only diff is that mine is carbed. The problem could be the fuel pump. We have another car and when it gets hot it wont start unless we pack the gas tank with ice to cool it down. It may sound weird but it does work, im not an expert but it should start if its getting the fuel and fire and u said it acts like its getting no gas. when its hot out turn the key on and have the pump build up pressure. then find the lil pressure valve and press it for a sec and c if any gas sprays out if it dont your pump is weak or your fuel pump relay.

 

Does the fuel pump cycle, does the engine have any compression? is the ECM bad?

 

the engine's running 10:1 C/R, although when i start the car i have never noticed the fuel pump turning on ... can't hear it even if i listen for it. is it possible that the PO over-compressed the engine for the stock 126K mi fuel pump when it's at 10:1 ? also, interestingly enough, my car will always start no matter how hot as long if i have just put gas in, and whenever i take off the cap there's massive de-pressurization, like you can hear it from outside and you can feel air/vapor moving the hairs on your arm 3/4 way to elbow

 

ok the pressure in the tank, did u remove the charcol canister or any of the fuel return lines to the tank.

 

if it's just a matter of the starter not turning it over hot buy a better/bigger starter, have you chacked the fuel preasure?

 

how much would a bigger / better starter cost me ? and how much for some header sleeves ? i now think it actually is the starter bc , umm, i went out to drive to work and it did not crank at all - i think the edelbrock TES headers cooked the hell out of the starter =/

 

well yea if the headers r close to the starter they will fry them, it may not happen over night but it will certainly mess them up when it warms up. id say get a mini starter with extra torque cuz u will have the power to crank and keep it away from the header, also buy or make a heat sheild to go in between the 2.

 

What about vapor lock? Check and make sure none of your fuel lines are getting too hot from your headers or other stuff. This could cause a hot no start. Also the more fuel in your tank the less your chances of vapor lock. The fuel going back to the tank from the return line gets mixed with the cooler gas in the tank assuring cool fuel is getting to the injector. And aftermarket chips are crap, by law they are only allowed to affect the last 10% of throttle (WOT) like Mark said.

 

heh i'll bet vapr lock has something to do with it too ... although if the car won't start at all this morning i kinda think that vapor lock is a secondary concern

ummmmmmm how much are header sleeves to help deal with heat ?

 

I don't know how much header sleeves are, but you could probably find them from Summit or Jegs. Might try searching the board. If your car didn't start this morning and you know you have spark I would check your fuel pump relay, your fuel filter, and get a fuel pressure reading.

 

but todd like it's not just that it wouldn't start - it wouldn't crank at all. the key goes all the way forward to the normal start position and the car does absolutely 0 - no eh-eh-eh-eh-eh of an engine trying to turn over ... it doesn't do anything at all. is it possible that the car won't even try to crank if the fuel pump relay is bad ?

 

Im having the exact same problem with mine. Nothing happens at all when it gets hot. Ive replaced the starter with no luck. So Im think Safety Switch or Something. How do you cure Vapor Lock??????

 

Sorry, Thought it would crank and spark, but there was no fuel. If that is your problem I would look into a mini starter like the others said and also a heat shield for it. A bad fuel pump relay will not cause a no crank. As for the vapor lock try to re-route your fuel lines if possible. You may need to get longer/shorter ones to do this. Also try to insulate them with some kind of wrap. Vapor lock is caused by the fuel in the lines getting too hot. You get the idea

 

thx guys, when my car hurts, i hurt =D