I have a 71 cutlass 350ci automatic trans with flowtech headers. the problem is that the starter and headers are pretty close, only about a inch or so between them. I keep burning up the starters literally. This makes hot starts impossible unless I let the car sit for an hour. Ive tried the starter wrap from thermo tech and that was to close to the headers where I thought it might catch fire. Also the wrap made the starter stop working all together. Does anyone have any ideas besides wrapping the headers? Are there any performance starters designed to take this heat? Space is an issue and only a mini starter will fit.

 

Install a starter shield between the started and the header (stock part find one in the wrecking yard off of a 455). Do not wrap the starter as this traps heat.

 

you can do as citcapp said and wrap the headers if the shield is not enough

 

I believe you can also pruchase a mini starter. This would give you more clearance and air is a great insulator.

 

Something I used in a car with headers, I installed a Ford starter solenoid on the fenderwell, and ran a jumper across the posts on the starter. It was a kit I purchase from Summit but could be done easily with parts in the garage. Worked great, except the Ford starter solenoids only lasted about 2 years each, made somewhere overseas I guess!

 

That starter solenoid kit sounds interesting. If you could post a link to that on summit ill take a look. The starter shield and header wraps also sound like good ideas although im trying to avoid header wraps since i reallly dont want to take those things out. It took me almost a week to get them in because i have no one to help.

 

Lets see if this works.

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

 

With this setup, doesn't the GM solenoid on the starter still have to engage to pull the starter drive into mesh with the flywheel/flexplate?
DW

 

I'd junk the cheap-o headers for something that will fit better.

 

Danny, my best guess is that the GM solenoid is always open so when the ford solenoid sends the power to it that engages the starter with the flywheel. I know I had real problems with an overheated starter when I put the car together, but once I put this setup on I had no more problems with it. So... I may not understand just how it works but it did work

J- Headers, Headaches, whatever you want to call them the ones I had were spendy ones but they still didn't fit real well. I don't know how much performance gain there is with headers vs. the W/Z manifolds for a street driven car. I believe the manifolds simiply life though!

 

You should consider having the headers ceramic coated. The company I took mine to coats the inside and outside of the headers. Costs around $250 or so, but well worth it when you have to replace the starter. The starter wrap kit from Thermotech should work fine. It's just a strip of metal backed kevlar, but should hold out the heat pretty well in conjunction with the ceramic coating. Worse comes to worse you could coat the headers and put on header wrap tape, but that seems a bit overkill.