I would check the actual ground coming off the battery and all of it's connections. Chances are if the straps are heating up, the motor is grounding itself through the chassis.

 

hell, just run some jumper cables.

 

That's a good idea actually, except running it all for very long like that has the potential of frying some stuff. The really bad one would be the pcm. One purpose of the straps is to keep everything on the same page ground/potential wise. Transient currents running around the engine compartment is not good.

 

Im going to get some cables and hook them from the block to the frame, see how it comes out that way. It probably is grounding the starter through the ground straps because the one on the drivers side is the one that smokes and gets hottest, the one on the passenger side just gets warm, since electrical current takes the path of least resistance to ground, it will make that strap on the drivers side hot faster.

 

What size is the wiring you used for your grounds? If they are too small, this would cause the same broblems you are having. I am not sure what size they are as stock, but as long as they are at least that size or larger, then it's not a sizing issue.

One other possible ground issue could be weak connections. This means not just making them tight, but also making sure that there is no paint or grease or dirt between the connections. they need to be bare metal to bare metal at each connection point, otherwise it will cause an increase in resistance to electrical flow and thus, heat. Just a couple other ideas to throw at you...

 

Did the fire get near your starter? I was thinking about this and the only other thing I can come up with is that your starter is shorting out internally, but I would think if that was the case it wouldn't crank. One thing you could do to be on the safe side is unplug the pcm, ground the block, and hook the positive lead to the starter positive. Then touch it to the battery and see if the motor turns over. Don't want to see you end up with the dreaded no bus.

 

Indy,
Sounds like your starter or alternator are shorted out. If you have an OHM meter, use it to test continuity between the positive connection and the casing of the parts. Most voltage meters have a setting for Resistance (OHM) testing.

Disconnect the power line and attach onewire ofthe OHM meter to the positive terminal of the alternator/starter. Conenct the other wire to the casing. Ifthe needle moves a large amount you have a dead ground in that part. The needle may move a small bit because they are electric motors, but a large swing of the needle is not good and denotes a connection between the positive and negative which should not occur.

Hope this helps.

 

This may sound obvious but you do have a -battery cable coming from the battery to the block right? & not just to the frame/body?

 

Did you get it fixed?