QuestionI have a stock 1940 Ford, When cold she starts fine, but if I take her to a show she turns over slowly but will most likely not start unless I push her. I put a new battery in her this year. Also if I take her on a long trip around 30 - 40 miles she starts to miss and then quits, when I pull her home she will then starts, by pulling, after she cools down.
AnswerYou have two different problems. The slow cranking when hot is caused by any one of a long list of possible problems. In order of likelyhood, they are:
1. Inadequate battery cables. In a 6 volt car, the cables should be at least size 00 copper wire (welding cables, essentially). The ends of the cables should be soldered on, the clamp on type are poor conductors. The ground cable should be connected directly to the engine block near the starter, and there should be nothing but clean, bright, shiny metal to metal contact on both ends of both cables -NO PAINT!.
2. Tired starter. Take the car to an auto-electric place and have them measure the current draw when the starter is cranking the engine. They will know what is excessive - and will tell you if your starter needs to be rebuilt.
3. Tight engine. If the engine was rebuilt, the machine shop may have taken the shortcut of skipping the align-boring of the main bearing saddles. If they did this, the engine will be very hard to crank when hot. The only cure is to have it rebuilt again, with no shortcuts taken.
Your problem with the engine dying when it gets hot can also have many causes, but most likely, it is either a vapor lock problem or an ignition problem. To sort this out, next time this happens, take the air cleaner off and have a helper crank the engine (try to start it) while you spray very short bursts of WD-40 down the carburetor. If the engine starts, even if only for a second or two, you've proven that your problem is lack of fuel. Vapor lock is very common these days, because of the new fuel composition. There is no cure other than to install an electric fuel pump, back near the tank, as low as you can get it safely (out of the way of road debris), being sure to replace all rubber fuel lines at both ends of the car while you are at it (to prevent air ingestion due to hose deterioration).
If the WD-40 trick did not produce a start, then you need to investigate the ignition system. The coil is the first suspect, so replace that (make sure you get one for a 6 volt postive ground car!), and check all the wiring associated with the coil and distributor. If that doesn't do it, replace the points and condenser. Another thing to check is the compression - do a compression check, because an engine with low compression is very hard to start, especially when it is hot (although this doesn't make it crank slow.) I'd expect to see somewhere around 80-100 PSI on a compression test on all 8 cylinders, if you are at sea level or below 1000 feet. Above that altitude, the compression pressure drops, but if all 8 are even within 10%, it probably is not your problem.
Post a "follow-up" back to me and let me know how this worked out, please.
Thanks,
Dick
