Ground wire gets red hot!

[Ernest Kuk]

I tried firing my sb 400 I've been working on today. It's in a 1980 Malibu wagon. When I go to turn the engine over it struggles to crank and the ground wire from the firewall to the engine gets red hot. I'm guessing there's a short somewhere. Any ideas?

 

[81Regal]

Did it run before you put the 400 in?

 

[pontiacgp]

sounds like the ground wire has a bad connection

 

[Ernest Kuk]

Did it run before you put the 400 in?

I had a 350 in it before. It ran but I overheated it.

 

[foxtrot]

Try running a 'beefy' ground directly between the battery and the block. See if this helps and report back.

 

[Ernest Kuk]

Thanks, I'll check all my grounds tomorrow. Also the brake lines get crazy hot too!

 

[pontiacgp]

Thanks, I'll check all my grounds tomorrow. Also the brake lines get crazy hot too!

you mean the brake lines get hot starting the car? Maybe you do have a major short. It could be in the starter. I would take the leads off the starter keep them together so you have power and turn the key to see if the ground cable and brake lines get hot

 

[HAFROD]

Make sure you have a full ground circuit = body to frame, engine to frame, and engine to firewall. Its trying to ground to that one spot you have and its overheating it.

 

[Ernest Kuk]

Make sure you have a full ground circuit = body to frame, engine to frame, and engine to firewall. Its trying to ground to that one spot you have and its overheating it.

I found a cut ground wire! Thank you!

 

[pontiacgp]

you might want to consider upgrading the grounds on your car. They didn't seem to think grounds were all that important when they built these cars...