The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Turns over real slow

Brought home a 1956. 235 engine. Put a little oil in spark plug holes waited awhile. With plugs out engine turned over well by hand. Valves opened and closed. With everything ready I hooked up jumper cables and tried to fire it up. It turned very slow. Not enough to start. Would turn two times and stop. Took plugs out and it turned over great. Do I need a battery and not jumper cables? Is there something wrong with starter? What should I check?

Check, clean and resecure the battery to ground strap and the engine to frame ground strap. Charge the battery and do the same for the positive battery to starter cable.

Starter could be bad but you need to do the above 1st before pulling it.

The engine is on a stand. I was using jumper cables to a run it car. made sure all connections were good. Cables did get hot though

Jumper cables often are too thin, or clamps weak or not enough contact area to do the job, real, heavy battery cables(both) will tell the truth.

Ed

Your jumper cable seem to be inadequate for the job. Have you tried cranking the engine with the plugs out?...if the starter is good, it should spin the engine quite easily and rapidly. Wouldn't hurt to work some oil up in the galleries before your first fire.