I bought the truck in Alaska in 2017 with 100k miles on it. No humidity there and always started before I could even let go of the key. Since bringing it back to Mississippi last year if I let it sit for 3 or 4 days it's slow to start. It is very humid here and rains a lot. Sometimes it would take forever to start but finally would, sometimes it wouldn't start at all. This usually only happened if I let it sit for a while. It was my daily driver for the past year and had no issues because I ran it almost everyday.
Fast forward to recently. Bought a beater car in August and had been dailying that and left the Chevy parked. Tried to start it before hurricane Ida hit so I could go fill up gas jugs. Took forever to start but it finally did. 3 days later when the storm is about to hit I try to start it to move it into the car port and it won't start and the starter solenoid goes out.
Order the starter and the truck sits while I wait for it to come in. Got the starter put in last week. Removed the ground and hit them with a flap disk to make sure all connections are clean. Put in the new crank sensor. Put everything back together, try to crank it and nothing. Stumbles a little bit like it wants to start but doesn't. Crank on it for a while with no progress. Smells like gas around the truck. Had a stored code for high voltage at ignition module
The next day I go get a cap and rotor and install that. Checked for clogged screens in the distributor base - no screens at all, just small holes. Put it back together and fires right up. I let it run for 30 mins and killed it. Went to start it on Saturday morning and it wouldn't start. I opened the hood and held the leaf blower at the distributor area for 5 mins and then let it sit in the sun with the hood up all day. Later in the day it was slow to start and stumbled a little but finally got started and ran fine after that.
Recent new parts and stuff I've done:
Battery is a month old
New gear reduction starter last week
Crank sensor last week - based on GM service bulletin outlining a hard-start issue
Checked for clogged screens in distributor - no screens there at all
New cap and rotor 3 times in the last year - points in the cap get severely corroded. Most recent cap and rotor was last week
Ignition module about this time last year
Fuel pump in 2019
Plugs and plug wires in 2017
Lower intake manifold gasket replacement in January.
Put a fuel gauge on it and had 62 psi with key on and truck off. Dropped to 58-60 while cranking. Dropped to 55 after a few hours. Dropped to 35-40 the next afternoon. I think this is normal
Truck info:
97 K1500 with L31 350, no mods done to motor minus a Blackbear PCM tune after re-gearing it in January. 150k miles
I found a lengthy post by @thegawd on another forum outlining some of the issues. I intend to drill out the holes in the distributor base and see how that affects it. Will I benefit from one of the fancy aluminum MSD distributors?
After that though, seems like a new distributor is the next step. I bought a inline spark checker but have to wait for my wife to get back from visiting her folks so I can get her to turn it over while I check for spark.
Any ideas? Seems like moisture buildup in the cap is my issue. The points in the cap I just removed were black. Once it finally gets running it runs perfect with no stumbles, misses, or codes. It's just getting it started that is the problem.
Fast forward to recently. Bought a beater car in August and had been dailying that and left the Chevy parked. Tried to start it before hurricane Ida hit so I could go fill up gas jugs. Took forever to start but it finally did. 3 days later when the storm is about to hit I try to start it to move it into the car port and it won't start and the starter solenoid goes out.
Order the starter and the truck sits while I wait for it to come in. Got the starter put in last week. Removed the ground and hit them with a flap disk to make sure all connections are clean. Put in the new crank sensor. Put everything back together, try to crank it and nothing. Stumbles a little bit like it wants to start but doesn't. Crank on it for a while with no progress. Smells like gas around the truck. Had a stored code for high voltage at ignition module
The next day I go get a cap and rotor and install that. Checked for clogged screens in the distributor base - no screens at all, just small holes. Put it back together and fires right up. I let it run for 30 mins and killed it. Went to start it on Saturday morning and it wouldn't start. I opened the hood and held the leaf blower at the distributor area for 5 mins and then let it sit in the sun with the hood up all day. Later in the day it was slow to start and stumbled a little but finally got started and ran fine after that.
Recent new parts and stuff I've done:
Battery is a month old
New gear reduction starter last week
Crank sensor last week - based on GM service bulletin outlining a hard-start issue
Checked for clogged screens in distributor - no screens there at all
New cap and rotor 3 times in the last year - points in the cap get severely corroded. Most recent cap and rotor was last week
Ignition module about this time last year
Fuel pump in 2019
Plugs and plug wires in 2017
Lower intake manifold gasket replacement in January.
Put a fuel gauge on it and had 62 psi with key on and truck off. Dropped to 58-60 while cranking. Dropped to 55 after a few hours. Dropped to 35-40 the next afternoon. I think this is normal
Truck info:
97 K1500 with L31 350, no mods done to motor minus a Blackbear PCM tune after re-gearing it in January. 150k miles
I found a lengthy post by @thegawd on another forum outlining some of the issues. I intend to drill out the holes in the distributor base and see how that affects it. Will I benefit from one of the fancy aluminum MSD distributors?
After that though, seems like a new distributor is the next step. I bought a inline spark checker but have to wait for my wife to get back from visiting her folks so I can get her to turn it over while I check for spark.
Any ideas? Seems like moisture buildup in the cap is my issue. The points in the cap I just removed were black. Once it finally gets running it runs perfect with no stumbles, misses, or codes. It's just getting it started that is the problem.