Grounds and the hot to the starter good? If the are warm/hot after running, they could be overly heat soaked and not conducting well, resulting in dropped power to your starter.

I have adjusted the floats perfect but I didn't check for fuel dripping with the blades wide open, I just looked with the blades closed. Thanks for pointing that out.
When it fires there is a lot of steam and some black/brown smoke which makes me wonder about water in the combustion chamber. I would think if water was getting in there I would have some difference in the way the starter turns the engine over but there seems to be none. Oil looks new with no contamination.

I can't get parts for the distributor. Probably going to go with a pertronix flamethrower III or DUI.

The cables are old but seem reasonable. They were on my list to replace with some custom length ones. The starter turns the engine over very strong when warm. No difference when cold.

You didn’t fully answer my questions. What do you have the choke wired to?

Also, so in that freezing weather, it started fine when engine was cold ?

could have choke wire on the wrong side of the ballast.seen that a few times.plus,is there a wire from the other small post on the start to the coil plus,,this is there for full 12v when starting only.

Yup.that is what i’m digging for. Why i asked if points. Next was the 12v to coil only when starting, even though he seems to say starts fine when cold but not hot.

not getting clear info. Oh well.

Thanks finally got to check it out.
Positive wire to choke is from the side of ballast where the power goes in.
There is a wire from the starter that goes to the out side of the ballast.
The engine started how it typically does when cold.

Thanks there are points. They are worn should be replaced but the distributor is so old I can't find the Mallory number on any website to look up points.

The wire to the positive side of the coil comes from the out side of the ballast.

I would adj the choke all the way open and remove the pos wire, with a holley should start fine with no choke, see what that does, best thing you can do ign wise is a DUI HEI, also might try a plastic heat insulator spacer under the carb in case its heat soak

I did one of those Pertronix points conversion boxes for an old 351 Ford years ago. One of the best $70 I've spent on a boat.