1959 Pontiac Catalina a longtime customer has us taking care of. Over the years we have upgraded the car to power disc brakes, which has had us move to larger 15 inch wheels. We have replace the generator with a modern day alternator made to look like an original generator.
Here's some pics of previous upgrades we've done to the car. The "New " alternator, and the Power brake installation.
Our Client has had a bit of a starting issue on hot days, with a warm car. After searching the web, and talking to all the classic car parts houses that " Specialized" in Classic Pontiac cars, I finally dug up a gem of a company located in Southern California. Over time we have tried various fixes to a classic problem. First we tried a "better" starter, and for the most part the starter worked just fine. The problem occurred when the car was driven on a warm day ; parked; and then tried to restart. The starter at that time just didn't have enough oomph to start the big V8 engine on a warm day.
First we tried a "Better" starter. This starter worked well in most conditions. It just failed when the engine got heat soaked and it was a warm day. We tried wrapping header wrap on the Exhaust to keep the heat away from the starter. We tried building a customer heat shield to keep the heat away from the starter. There was always a little bit of a stretch for the car to start on warm days after runnig a bit. So we found this Hi Torque starter and it currently seems to be the cats meow!
First we tried a "Better" starter. This starter worked well in most conditions. It just failed when the engine got heat soaked and it was a warm day. We tried wrapping header wrap on the Exhaust to keep the heat away from the starter. We tried building a customer heat shield to keep the heat away from the starter. There was always a little bit of a stretch for the car to start on warm days after runnig a bit. So we found this Hi Torque starter and it currently seems to be the cats meow!
The Last notes; the starter works great on hot days with a heat soaked engine. If you're looking for a way to have your older Pontiac's start easier without making major modifications Contact HiTorque IMI Performance Products Inc. The Starter we used that's bolted to the transmission; and NOT the engine was part # IMI-155-004.