Okay, I bought this truck because noone could get it to start. Had an old 383 in it so I built a new 440 for it. Still wouldn't start (sometimes). Ended up replacing the entire electronic ignition system with an all new Petronix plug-n-play distributor and coil. Locating pin for the cam timing gear on the cam sheared. Replaced with Lunati 3 bolt cam and timing gear drive system for the absolute most in durability. Truck kept overheating so I replaced radiator, water pump, housing, thermostat. Still overheated. messed with timing. Still overheated. FINALLY decided to check valley pan for leakage because cold starts were almost impossible and yall said it sounded like a lean system. Was sucking air from under valley pan so replaced with new one. Still wouldn't start. Thought ignition switch went bad so I put test light on coil neg, and used remote start switch to test and fired right up! Idled for 5 minutes and then just stalled! Won't start! test light on coil neg. flashes when trying to start but no spark! (pulled plug and grounded out on header) SO... has my new Petronix plug-n-play distributor failed on me already???!!!

Tomorrow I'm gonna call a priest and have him bless the truck. Then I'm going to find a shamen and have him de-demonize it!

That should cover everything . That's alot of issues for one vehicle. If the coil sec is sparking then just work over to the dist secondary & out to the plugs. You're almost there.

You have a bad ballast resistor. Start by running a jumper wire from the positive side of the battery to the positive side of the coil. I like the MSD Blaster coils. Now start it up. If that helped then replace the ballast resistor. Also make sure that your coil connections are not reversed. The fatter power+ wire should go to the + side of the coil. If they get reversed it will still run but not good and hard to start. Make sure you have a body ground from the negative side of the battery to the inner fender and use a braided ground strap(Napa) from the back of the motor to the firewall. Grounds seem so obvious but often overlooked. As far as overheating use a fixed fan. No clutch fans on trucks. And make sure your fan is close to the radiator and you have a full fan shroud. I like the seven blade factory fans in my trucks.

No ballast resistor on the petronix system. Just 12 volts from the ignition system to the coil pos and red wire on the distributor and black wire between the coil neg. and distributor. Pretty simple which is why I converted in hopes I would not have problems EVER AGAIN!

Oh and it's the coil. No spark leaving secondary.

I run a thermal clutch fan on my 440 truck and it works great. If it is running lean it will run hot. I believe if the timing is way far off they can run hot too. I can just fit my hand between the clutch on my fan and my radiator. And I don't run a cowl. I have no problems here in Atlanta in the summer humid heat. I would suggested getting/borrowing one of those laser guided thermal gun deals and verifying the temperature. I've had some of those 1-wire temp sender deals be waaaaaaaay off.