not across the starter across the wire to the starter, if you had a high resistance issue it would cause a similar problem

but if you can not pop start the car i think you may have a much worse problem, i would pull the plugs out and see if the car will turn over then

 

If you cant turn the engine over with a ratchet then you have a serious problem.Possibly hydrolocked.Pull the spark plugs out and try turning it over.

 

Well, me being in a rush I tried popping it in 1st gear, which was prolly too harsh. I should have atleast used 2nd gear. So it may pop start. I will go home today and unplug the coil wire that goes into the Opti and then try and stick a long enough wire in there so I can test to see if I get spark while I am inside my car turning the key to the crank position, If I get spark there I will do the same with the plug wires to make sure they are all fine.

How would I test the high resistance load idea?

Using a multimeter I would put the negative to the starter casing, and then the positive side to the bigger 12v wire, or to the purple wire/ignition wire?

Thanks again for the idea. Really weird problem considering it has been driving like a champ for a long time.

 

if you can not pop start the car then forget about any issues with the starter or battery, when you tried to pop start it did the motor turn over at all or just stop the car

 

It turned over, just didnt start.

 

I agree. What is worse, if there is water in the cylinder...it will not compress. You could be bending some stuff. Pull the plugs, insure there is no water shooting out the spark plug holes. Try a compression test on each cylinder.

BTW, did that shop test the starter under a load?

 

Yes, I watched them..

There was three phases.

Selenoid, starter, and load test.

It just said PASS on every one. Did not display any specific results.

I will pull the plugs and see if everything is ok. If everything seems to be ok after that, think I should go as far as draining the oil and looking for metal, or prolly just turn it over by hand a couple times and then try hooking it all back up and then try again?

 

Ok, the results.

I pulled all spark plugs, all perfect brown. (madz28.com tune btw)

I then turned the motor over by hand using a ratchet. It is turning over no problem. I did atleast 10 revolutions. I am now thinking I must have a short somehow or something electrical is taking a huge draw. I am going to get a multimeter and test out my ground cable that goes to the engine/engine mount and make sure it ohms out good.

Any other suggestions?

 

Ok, I tried putting a spark plug into the coil wire that goes to the opti. I disconnected the opti side. And then grounded it out. No spark. I tried turning it over a couple times. Nada, no spark and no sound. This is with the starter disconnected as well.

I need to borrow a multimeter so I can use shoebox's method of testing the coil with ohming it out. Any other ideas? Perhaps a bad ICM?

 

That sounds low for a built LT1, let alone any V8. Factory CR is like 10.25:1, right? Are you higher than that now?

When you popped the clutch to start it, what gear where you in? If you were in first, I would suggest trying it in 2nd or 3rd as you will have more torque from the momentum of the car vs. 1st gear.

I work at autozone and I've done so many battery tests that I want to shoot myself. Anyway, if your battery voltage drops to 0v when you try to start, there is definitely something wrong there. Battery voltage during starting should be something like 8v at a minimum.

How are your battery cables? A loose or corroded cable is an often overlooked cause for poor start/no start.

 

I ran new battery cables with the build. Practically everything is new that I thought would need changing. I havent replaced the following items.

Stock Alternator
Stock Coil
Stock ICM

Pretty much everything is brand new from Jason Cromer or aftermarket.

When my car died on the road it would make sense if it was either the opti or the coil. Hense you need spark to run/start. I will be testing out the coil tonight with a multimeter to verify the coil.

 

Were you able to turn the engine over with the starter? What was the voltage drop across the battery when doing this? What was the voltage drop from the "main" cable on the starter to the battery?

I have a fluke amp clamp that will measure DC current. If I had this problem, I'd be looking at the positive current coming off of the battery during starting. However...this meter costs around $400(At the time, I got a discount from working at Sara Lee..cost around $300) .

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/1RH76

This is really the only way to look at the current safely.

I suppose it's possible that you have a small current drain that could be taxing your battery over time. You should be able to see this using a meter and checking the batt at various time intervals.

 

Isn't an "LT4 starter" better than the stock one? I was thinking there is some type of difference between the starters that came on the LT4 vs the LT1.

I was just thinking that it offers more torque than the LT1 starter.

 

Ahhh, here we go....

http://lt1tech.com/cgi-bin/ultimateb...c;f=6;t=000735

 

although current is important its not as important as voltage drop

put the black probe on the positive battery terminal

red probe on 12v terminal of the starter

meter set on voltage

should be zero right now, have a friend try to start the vehicle while meter is connected and read the meter while cranking