Thread: Engine shuts down After 15 miles

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My 350 engine shuts down completely after about 15 miles and a couple of red lights. Temp is at about 190, usually stays at 185 running temp. New distributor, cap, fuel pump. Holly 600 carb with Vickers Jr intake about 5 years old. Sometimes it might refire when cooled down to 135 and a dash of gasoline added to the carb. This problem is kicking my butt lately. Thanks for any ideas.

If you have an HEI type distributor, it sounds like the module is heat soaking and shutting off. I've had them do what you describe. There is supposed to be heat sink compound under the module where it bolts to the distributor body.

Change the module. I think Hotrod 46 is on the money. I wouldn't trust it if it heatsoaked to a fail state.

Next time it shuts off, isolate the cause- fuel or spark. If no spark, then check for power to distributor. HEI needs a minimum of 12AWG feed, most use 10AWG.

But that is all assuming you are running an HEI. If you are using something more exotic like a multi spark capacitive discharge system then most problems trace to ground issues.

Check your tail pipe. How close is the tail pipe to your gas tank? Could be boiling your fuel and vapor locking. Fuel line close to header?

All good advice and the one I thought of is the fuel pump if you are running an old mechanical pump, the drive pin may be worn so that as the block heats, the pin isn't long enough to drive the pump. Check the above though as those guys know a heap more than me.

My vote is the HEI problem, but then the gas down the carb would just be a weird coincidence I forgot all about that even thought it's happen'd to me before.