Starting issues

[Jerry Lee]

I need help figuring this out. I have the 1935 Hot Rod truck with a 306 small block ford with the Holley Sniper EFI from Blue Print Engines. When I try to start the motor, it starts and then immediately dies. I have good fuel pressure. When I talked to Brian at Blue Print he said he had this happen one other time. He told me to unhook the one one wire off the alternator and try to start it. With the wire off the alternator the engine fires up and runs great. I have taken the alternator to a shop that does nothing but alternators and everything checked out good. It puts out 118amps and charges at 14.4 vdc. I happen to have an extra battery sitting around and ran the wire from the alternator and ground to the second battery and engine runs and charges but if I connect it to the truck battery it dies. I hope I'm explaining this issue where everyone understands.

[Mastertech5]

Not really. Is your alternator a one wire one? Is your engine grounded to the frame, I assume so if the starter works. Is the correct power wire(s) connected to the Holley unit?

[Prslegmaker]

Did you attach your ground wire from the alternator to the chassis?

[Jerry Lee]

Yes my alternator is a one wire. Right now I have it grounded to the frame but at one point I had the ground going strait back to the negative side of the battery. From what I can tell everything is hooked up correctly. I spoke with Holley yesterday and they said it sounded like an RFI possibly. (Radio Frequency Interference) I spoke with someone at Blueprint Engines and he asked me if I had the blocker plate in front of the Sniper. I told him no so he sent it to me and after installing it there was no change. I have been fighting this since last December or so and it's getting really frustrating. If I remove the positive wire off the alternator it runs fine. With the positive wire connected and try to start the engine if fires and maybe runs for a second then the RPM gauge on the Holley handheld says error and dies.

[Mastertech5]

Is the tach signal being picked up at the coil? I'm not real familiar with that Holley EFI. It does sound like some kind of RFI. Is the power wire from the alt. in the same conduit as the tach wire? That would do it.

[Its Bruce]

Is the alternator from BPE (or their supplier, CVF)? When you say one wire, are you referring to the single wire between the alternator and the battery, or are you hooking up a pigtail connection at the alternator as well? I found that my CVF alt only required the 4awg to the battery and a ground strap. I cut the pigtail connection off and hid the wire back in the loom.

[Mastertech5]

I agree with Its Bruce. A one wire alt only requires the big charge wire.

[DonImbimbo]

The Factory Five harness has the fat red wire running (10 ga I think) from the alternator into the dash area by the ignition switch (but no connection there). Then in runs from there to the starter lug. It makes no connection in the dash. Since it runs fine without the alternator, I would try disconnecting the red wire at the alternator. Use an ohmmeter to figure out which wire it is on the starter and disconnect that too. Make sure it starts and runs. Then add a wire directly from the alternator to the starter, running on the outside of the truck. If it runs and stalls I would declare the sniper bad, it can't tolerate 14 volts.

I suppose it could be increased RFI at 14 volts.

I'm a few weeks away from having my 347 and sniper running (from Blueprint).

[Jerry Lee]

As it turns out, Blue Print Engines ended up sending me a new coil, and that seems to have solve the problem. Thank you everyone for your comments.

[Mastertech5]

Glad to hear it!