Long tubes causing starter issues..

[bowtietillidie88]

I jumped on a set of Pacesetter Long tubes for my 1997 Tahoe.. sound amazing! Problem I have ran into is how close the headers sit to the starter solenoid.. It's getting it really hot and even after 3 minutes of running makes it questionable to shut off and turn right back on. Usually have to wait awhile once I shut it down before I can restart it. I have used heat wrap, a starter heat blanket, even a welding hand guard stuck in there.. Still getting the solenoid too hot. Any advice? Would a smaller high torque starter that sits slightly further away fix everything? Thanks!

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[drakon543]

As ive recently found out there are actually 2 starters available for our tahoes (mine is the same year also). The one is a regular direct drive starter and the other is a gear reduction starter. The gear reduction starter is smaller more power and less susceptible to temperature. As my searching has led me to the only difference you will have to change the starter mounting bolts as the dd bolts are too long if i recall. If you can get the correct bolts the gear reduction oem starter might help you and is cheaper. However your best however more annoying option is to mark the area on the tubes that are too close. Remove that header and take it to a shop capable of cutting that section out and replacing it with a better routing. Anything electrical is susceptible to extreme temperatures no matter how fancy it is. Replacing the starter witha more efficient one might really only be a bandaid that ends up with you throwing 200 dollar starters at the truck more often than u should. Sorry im rambling last thing tho i didnt notice you mention you replaced the starter or how old the starter is. Its common for a starter on a gm v8 to do this when it starts going bad. My 97 tahoe has its original manifold and y pipe and had to replace the starter to correct this problem.

 

[bowtietillidie88]

I was told when I bought it the starter was only a few months old.. didn't see a receipt for that, it didn't look too old.. Thanks for the input on the second starter, I had never heard that before. Something I will definitely look into. Might be a stupid question, but you can't just change out the solenoid can you? Thanks again for the advice!

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[drakon543]

I think you can but its not quite as simple as just swapping parts. The heat will effect the actual starter motor itself. As far as it being relatively new. I went through 3 different brand starters on my 91 camaro before i found one that would last longer than 2 months.