Car 62

[Headhunter]

Was wondering if that short block change cured the problem.
HH

[car62]

no it sure didnt...complete engine from another running car that ran the previous week...so its nothing engine related.

[Headhunter]

Bad battery or main power cut off switch? If not does this car have either a different air filter or different way the air gets to the carb than the others?

[car62]

weve changed the battery,everything from brand new deep cycle,new red top gel cell,new yellow top gel cell,new mini alternator,new master disconnect switch,new solenoid,all new wiring,yes different filters...4 of them to be exact...im telling you this thing is haunted...next step is a ground all the way directly to the block...car has ran for 9 years the way it was,but who knows..kinda becoming a hair pulling nightmare.

[Headhunter]

Does it have a different air filter or was the airflow to te carb changed in any way?

[that dude]

i'm not familiar w/ the previous post and history what the problem was...but just some other ideas for looking in to ill running engines:

fuel line (collapse, crushed, clogged)
old/dirty/watered down fuel
crapped out electric pump
crappy pickup in fuel can
crappy fuel pressure
improper idle mixture or crap float adjustments
clogged vent in fuel can
lack of air flow
major vacuum leak
clogged air intake system

seeing that you've single out electric and you singled out the mechanical engine side (with a known good running engine from another car)
I'd look into actual ignition circuit, then fuel source (check it all, cell to carb), fuel supply (try another fuel cell with known good gas in it), then check air sources, and like you said, good engine to chassis ground....

and a good negative battery to chassis ground.....you should be able to place a ohmmeter lead on engine block/intake and place other lead on negative post and get little to zero ohms.

if not, figure out where you are losing connectivity to ground.

i blew out a tfi dizzy module once from having crappy engine block ground....it smoked the dizzy and melted grd wire too..lol. that'll scare the crap out of you when you just put a brand new motor in and firing up first time...all the smoke puffed out from the fried wire as soon as button was pushed to start...haha The engine wouldn't even turn over through crap ground, starter took path of least resistance which was distributor ground......

[Headhunter]

He has pretty much covered 99.9% right down to the motor. He may be onto something with the ground. Maybe corrosion has fouled the ground path through the chassis. The starter may draw enough to jump the resistance but the lower current may not be able to. To test it out put a 12 or 14 gauge wire from the block to the negative batery terminal. if it gets hot while cranking the motor chances are it is a bad chassie ground.
Even with the solid cage you may be getting problems where the K-frame connects to the sub frame and not getting a good ground through the motor mounts from that point. More than likely it is galvanic corrosion from small electric currents being passed through the steel