engine runs fine for 1 minute, then dies

[nvrbdn]

my son has a fox body mustang with a built 302. we just changed the head gaskets and freeze plugs, put it all back together and fired it up. it ran great, but i was chasing the timing. when he would shut it off it wouldnt start. i would advance the timing and it would fire right up shut it off and it wouldnt start, id advance more and it would fire up. the warmer it got, the more timing i needed. told him the chain was stretched. and it was really sloppy. changed the timing chain and fired it up. idels great. has great response. sounds awesome. for about a minute. then it shuts off like someone turned off the key. car wont start no matter what you do. but wait a couple minutes and the car will fire up and run perfect. for around a minute. then dead. we regrounded the msd box, checked all the connections and grounds, same thing every time.

   coil?  msd?

[charge69]

Sounds a lot like a fuel delivery problem. What does he have on it?

[c00nhunterjoe]

Are you still running through the tfi module on the distributor? They were notorious for doing that.

[nvrbdn]

holly 750 dp we have the inline pressure guage and it is reading fuel pressure. when the engine dies, you can hit the throttle and spray fuel.


  the distributor is an after market dist. msd box and coil, all fuel injection is off. im not familiar with the set up. son in law built the car, step son bought it, im trying to get it back on the road to sell.
was a mean street car last year till the freeze plug started leaking. then it sat through the winter waiting for the time to work on it.

[nvrbdn]

the funny thing about it is that it doesnt matter what you do in that minute. let it idle only, it dies in 1 minute. run it full throttle, it dies in 1 minute.  idle to rev ups hitting the throttle the whole time, it dies in 1 minute. no matter how much fuel you use or dont use, it dies in 1 minute.

[c00nhunterjoe]

If it has fuel and wont run, then its lacking spark. As soon as it dies you can test the msd box for spark output. If it sparks then suspect your distributor pickup.

[firefighter3931]

If it has fuel and wont run, then its lacking spark. As soon as it dies you can test the msd box for spark output. If it sparks then suspect your distributor pickup.

I'd suspect the distributor pickup if the MSD box checks out. It wouldn't hurt to check the primary and secondary resisstance on the coil before/after the engine shuts off just to eliminate an overheating/hot coil defect issue.

MSD troubleshooting : http://www.msdignition.com/page.aspx?id=3206


Ron

[nvrbdn]

thanks guys. i will check this out tonight.

[67tbird]

fusable link?