After having it torn down for a year, I finally got my '95 F-150 with the 4.9L inline six back up and running.

I have installed a header which I had ceramic coated to both help with heat and hopefully make it last longer. I'll start out by saying that my battery is no doubt on it's last legs. It's an Advance Auto Parts Silver (which if I was to buy today would only have a 2 year warranty) that is 10 years, 3 months old. Frankly I was stunned that it charged up at all, but it did and it will start the truck.

When the truck is relatively cold, the starter will crank over the old 300 seemingly as fast as it ever has. If you've ever owned one of these long stroke beasts, you know what I'm talking about. It starts right away every time. If I shut it down immediately I can start it again and again no trouble. This makes me think that, although the battery is not the best, it's not my problem.

After I drive a while and park the truck, if I immediately try to restart it, it will crank extremely slowly, which may or may not be fast enough to start the truck. The only thing that really makes sense is that it's heat soaking the starter. A battery in better condition might make it better but I think that would probably only be masking the problem. A couple of the local parts stores have starter heat shield wraps in stock, I hope to pick one up tomorrow and see if that helps, I think it should.

On the off chance that it doesn't, what are the other options? How have you dealt with a heat soaked starter?
I figure worst case, my neighbor used to work for powermaster, and he has one of their really awesome starters that should work on my truck. He said he'd sell it for a good price and it is basically immune to heat soak, but even his good price is more than I would really like to spend on it right now!

I've had ceramic coated long tubes on my vette for 12 years and have never had the first heat soak problem. I'd say the headers just aren't as close and the nippodenso gear reduction starter may just be more forgiving.

Thoughts?

could you be dealing with a dying starter? perhaps the main armature is going south?

Do you already have a remote solenoid for that starter? That is what I installed on my dad's 79 for heat soak. Otherwise a shield might help or perhaps a starter blanket. Do they make a mini-starter for that truck?

I wouldn't think the problem would be with a dying starter because it has never given a problem before (granted it just sat for a year) but now works perfectly every time when cold. It seems to certainly be heat related and it has to be enough heat. Drive it 2 miles, cranks a little slow. Drive it 10 miles at highway speed, won't spin fast enough to start.

As far as the solenoid goes, it's the super cool Ford design that uses 2. It has the fender mounted one and the one on the starter. Seems like this is already what we want right?

I don't know that anybody explicitly makes a mini starter for it. There's not a huge aftermarket for the 300 six. If it came to replacing the whole starter I think I would try my neighbor's powermaster. I'm sure he'd let me try it, and he worked there long enough to know which models can handle heat soak and which can't.

I think powermaster is a good brand, but they are application specific.

If you have a solenoid on the fender already, that's remote (how the fox mustangs were set up, not sure about trucks).

Can you fabricate a shield to block the starter? Otherwise, summit sells something called a starter blanket.

I would also check all the connections and wires for corrosion.

All the connections are clean and tight. Gonna get a heat "blanket" this morning and see if that helps. The powermaster in question is actually the one I need specific to my truck so should be good if I have to go that route.

Got the heat blanket this morning and installed it. Works like a champ! The old 4.9 still sounds like an old diesel when it cranks, but that's just the nature of the beast.

Glad that worked out!