hello, im having trouble here. I just finished installing a pre 86 350 in my z28. the old engine was the LG4. i dont have the computer anymore either. everytime i try to start the car i get smoke from the negative battery termial, and one battery i melted the terminal right off of it. i made sure the ground to the firewall had a good connection (sanded to bare metal). i also used 2 guage wire and grounded the engine (one on the back pass side head to the firewall and the other i grounded from the back of the drivers side head to the side of the body). what else would be causing this to happen. It also seems like the engine is turning over alot slower than it used to. if someone knows anything it would be a great help... thanks alot guys.

 

I'm guessing that what really happened, was that the small wire from the batt terminal to the car body got smoked.....

In that case, sounds like you need to hook up the big negative battery cable to the block.

 

is it ok if i just run another wire from the neg battery terminal to the car body? the big wire from the neg cable is on the alternator bracket. is this good enough or do i need it to go straight to the block?

 

The alt bracket should work, since that was the factory arangement at one time; make sure the brkt is well connected to the block/heads/water pump.

If the batt is not well connected to the engine by the big fat cable, you can run 20 grounds to the car body, and you'll still have trouble. There has to be a good, clean, low resistance path for the (rather enormous) starter current all the way from the battery to the starter. The fewer connections it has to go through, the better; the larger the wire, the better.

 

ok i just took the ground off the alt braket and cleaned it up good. it started to crank then the battery died, so ill have to charge the batttery. could this problem ever happen when the cars already running and the starter dosent have a current through it, or is it just the starters draw burns up the negative. thanks again for the help

 

The ground could rust.

 

okay thanks alot, i think the grounds are ok now, nows the fun part of trying to find out why she wont start. haha, thanks again