[RICK LAKE]

Seagull81 Steve spend the extra money and buy a gear reduction stater. Tilton, Powermaster, or even Summits. These starters will crank over a 14.5 compression motor. It's more important to make sure the gear to gear clearance between the starter bendix and the flywheel gear is about .035" engaged. Make sure the bellhousing was centered on the back of the motor to start. A heat shield wouldn't hurt if you have the room to install this.
Side note, Check the timing on the motor and also the timing chain for play when cranking the motor. With the timing off the motor will be harder to start is heat soaked.
The other thing to check is the starter soleniod, The contacts inside it could be burnt for many starts The spike of ampage is about 200-400 amps for a split second and then drops down to load rating. Before replacing the starter, It might be easier to replace the soleniod. IF your car uses the ign switch to directly start the startern add a 30-40amp relay in between to save the ign switch contacts and not burn them out or cause a dash fire. I have seen poor wiring in a cobra kit cook the dash from no relays.
Silly side note, If the car is parked and sitting for a couple of minutes pop the hood to let out the heat. Rap a small piece of 2X4 in cloth and hold open the hood. Starter will be easier.
Last note is it possible your car has vapor lock and causing hard starting or long cranking? Also check the cap and rotor if you run an MSD setup. These parts get burnt out faster than normal parts with very high voltage. Burnt holes in the rotor blade and the carbon contacts fall out of the caps.
#2 gauge wire is fine with clean ends. Have a little dye electiric grease on all the contections. Good luck. Sorry for the long info. Rick L. Ps you can rebuild most of these mini starters, ONly the bendix wears out over time. I have a tilton mini with 15 years on it and have had to replace the bendix because of mechanic failure to get a good measurement of clearance between gears I was talking about.