just replaced the ignition pick up, took it out for its first real run tonight,
made a few stops, when I made to go home, it was hard to start again.
Had been shut off only a few minutes.

Any ideas?

I am running the Q 4 bbl. How do I tell if I am lean?

What year? engine size? CCC carburetor? What type ignition system? What type fuel pump?? Etc, etc.

sorry for the lack of info. 1985, 305, (truck was 4.3 EFI.), mechanical fuel pump with electronic pump removed.
new starter, new ignition pick up, tested ignition module, (HEI)
EGR blocked, just had Quad 4 bbl rebuilt.

would a lean condition make it hard to start after the engine has been ran?
and how do I check for lean either way?

Malfunctioning choke? Starter Heat soak?
How bout old fashioned vapor lock? Fuel lines were probably rerouted when you switched from EFI to Carb Could one of them be too close to the exhaust manifold?

Lean mixture will show up in the plugs. Pull a few and see if the white center insulator looks abnormal. See if the center electrode has started to erode at all. After a while of driving with too lean a mixture the wear on the plug will make the center insulator and elctrode start wearing into a pyramid shape instead of the straight sides. There should be some deposits but no deformation of the insulator or electrode.

I don't know how much is left of the original wiring harness from your conversion but is it possible you have an issue with an ignition relay or even a poor ground somewhere that gets worse when the car heats up?


:?

I have a new starter and a heat shield.
the fuel lines are still in the stock position and only one side is used for the retro Quad 4 bbl. Return line is open.
I haven't driven very far to be able to see any change at the plugs but when I have pulled #1 it looks good (no soot, no ash)
My Actron Lean/Rich mixture guage reads lean (very lean).
any ideas?

Is your carb controlled by an ECM? If yes, it is entirely possible that the lean adjustment will cause it to be hard to start. In fact, if the setting is lean enough, it will be impossible to keep the engine running without closing the choke by hand. I've seen that one with my own eyes. So it stands to reason that a very lean condition could cause hard starting, but so could a lot of other things. Since you know there is a lean condition, I would get it fixed first. A lean running engine can burn a piston in short order.

mechanical fuel pump, retro Q 4bbl, vacuum advance distributor.
I think I may pull the ecm to see what differences I see.
any thoughts?

I do not understand the term "retro Q 4bbl". Is the carb controlled by the ECM? Is it a computer controlled carburetor (E4ME)? If it is computer controlled, it will have the tell-tale blue Mixture Control Solenoid on top and in the right front center of the carb. It will have an electrical plug with two wires running to it. It will also have a Throttle Position Sensor (TPS) connector sticking straight out the left front, and near the top of the carb. This sensor has three wires running to it.

If it is computer controlled, the lean and rich bench settings are most likely out of adjustment.

mechanical distributor, vacuum advance
mechanical fuel pump
electronic fuel pump removed from tank
equal or more length of fuel line in place of electronic fuel pump (pick-up)
non-electronic carb. Quadrajet 4bbl,rebuilt.
return fuel line is open

How would heat soak affect a running engine?

you might just want to try a carb spacer to get your carb away from the intake manifold heat..

I don't believe heat soak will affect your running engine unless it is at the carburetor. Excess heat that spreads into the carburetor will affect performance. That's why many people recommend a thick carburetor base gasket that acts as both the sealing gasket and heat insulator.

A starter suffering with heat soak problems will not turn fast enough to start the engine. I once saw a guy solve a starter heat soak problem with four layers of aluminum foil placed between the engine and the starter motor. Worked well until vibration caused the foil to fall out onto the road. Once that happened, the problem returned. I suppose aluminum foil wrapped around the fuel line near the exhaust manifold would solve vapor lock problems.

Ok, how bout mixture screws turned too lean, OR float level is too low.

I only mentioned heat soak because the original post said hard to start when hot. THe location of the starter on sml blk chevys puts them right under the exhaust manifolds and drown the starter in waves of heat when you turn off the engine. The excess heat causes the windings to increase their resistance to current and cause the starter to draw more battery current to turn the engine over. That's why they sell those remote solenoid setups that basically configure the wiring to mimic a FORD remote solenoid.

I had a heat soak problem and the remote solenoid solved it. I got tired of carrying cans of air duster and holding them upaide down to cool it off enough to allow the starter to turn. Nothing else worked, not new wiring, starters, solenoids or solenoid heat shields nothing but the remote solenoid did it. That's why I mentioned it.

I tried wrapping heat reflective tape around the starter and solenoid too and that kinda worked but every now and then I was grabbing for the air duster can again. The last time is when I did the remote solenoid thing. I should also mention that it was 110 that day which made the asphalt about 160 degrees.

Anyway, It could be a lean carb, maybe choke set too lean I would guess it's either an electric choke or a vacuum operated. You wouldn't have any provision for the old choke stove style chokes on your manifold. I know the spring inside the choke housing can wear out. Could even be a leaking gasket on the housing which will make a vacuum choke work incorrectly.

good luck with it. :)

I tried adjusting the elec. choke, but did not see any real change.
the last post makes me start thinking about the choke spring.
interesting...........

I had the same problem and found that my carb was getting too hot and the gas was purculating, it would make my car flood every time i turned it off when hot and tried to restart. i could watch the gas draining out of my see throught gas filter into the carb and i could also smell the gas flood into the intake, so i put in a carb heat spacer gasket and that fixed my problem atleast for now.

replaced the Turbo Thrush straight mufflers with junkyard oem mufflers from a full size p/u and the Elk will start without pumping the gas!!!
I wonder what a set of new flowmasters would do for performance?
he he he..........