My k5 has me stumped. The engine will just shut off by itself (like I turned the key off) after about 2-10mins of running. The engine doesn't sputter, surge or anything it just shuts off cold with no warning. And if i try to start it again it will just crank and crank unless i turn the key off and then start it, then it starts right up again. I know it has fuel pressure because I have an electric fuel pump hooked up to key on and theres a gauge on the carb that always shows 7psi even when the engine dies.

I'm leaning towards my ignition system. Its an MSD street fire HEI distributor thats basically gutted (ignition module and all internals were removed because I'm running the MSD street fire ignition box) Could my coil be going bad? Has anyone encountered anything like this before?

 

Hey frickenbored, how's it hanging?

First thing came to mind when I read the first line was the

HEI ECM was famous for this kind of stuff.

I don't suppose there's any way to test the MSD

ignition, is there?

If your system still has the HEI distributor at all,

the old rotors had a tendency to unscrew themselves at times...

 

hey man

I do still have an HEI system but the distributor doesn't control anything anymore, the ignition module and everything has been cut out of the distributor and thrown away, my ignition box takes care of everything.

That being said I actually stumbled across the problem. Just for the heck of it i disconnected the three wire connector at the coil on the distributor and wouldn't you know it, the ground wire pulled out of the connector. So the coil wasn't grounded, it must have been overloading and shutting down. I snapped the ground pin back in place and took the truck for a nice hour to hour and a half drive and it ran 110% better. What a diffrence. I did that about 3 or 4 days ago and it hasn't shut off since.

I was so glad it was nothing major. I filled the back of the connector with some rtv to ensure none of those pins ever pull out again.

 

Brick wall will that be strong and fit and and will it work fine