High Performance Starters

[Dale Okla]

OK - I'm going to post this knowing I'm going to catch hell. The last car I had with your symptom. Start when cold & will not start when hot suffered from low compression. When the car was hot everything expands & the engine wouldn't start. The engine does turn faster when push started. Other than that I would probably be on the starter not turning fast enough when engine is hot. Could it be the engine tolerances are so tight after it heats up that the starter is having to work harder? I know I've suggested 2 opposite views but I would want to consider all possible causes even if I didn't like them. If the engine is new & does have extremely tight tolerances the latter might be the cause. I have mainly drag raced most of my life & I have seen both instances with other peoples engines as well. I know you have been wrestling with this problem for a while & you have my sympathy. I know I've had problems myself that drove me nuts.
Dale

 

[Randy V]

Dale - I don't think you'll "catch hell" around here.. What you're saying fits in with some of the things that I've seen in the past and also pointed out on the first page of posts on this thread;

* Valve clearance hot is too tight. Not enough compression to get them to light off at normal cranking speeds..

Sometimes, opening up the lash a couple of thousandths of an inch will make the difference!

 

[Ron Earp]

Well fellows, the hot start problem might be gone (well, reduced). I was able to successfully start the car at 200F a couple of times. It sort of coughs to life at 200F, but it can be started. So, there has been a slight improvement.

The things I changed this time around:

• New air filters that seem to actually pass air
• A very small additional heat shield that keeps radiator air away from the carbs (not really though, the whole engine bay is "open" and not sealed off for certain areas but it could help a tiny bit)

Good race weekend but I DNFed. I qualified 3rd in class, my highest ever starting position, right behind Jeff Young in his TR8 and Steve Parrish in a fast 240Z. Positions 4-6 had a Porsche 944, a SAARC winning 2nd Gen RX7 that changed hands just recently, and another well done 2nd Gen RX7 as well as some other cars in and out of class further back.

Long story short all was good until I made a error in judgment in turn four on lap three. I hit a Spec Racer Ford and took us both out of the race, but, I'll write a bit about all of that in another thread....

Ron