starter?

[fe66comet]

I got my compression up to 11.27:1 with some tinkering with head gaskets, how much starter will I need with a 184 tooth flywheel? Thanks Jon

[ScotiaFE]

Just a good old stock re-man will do yeoman duty.
I have used Canadian Tire remans for cranking 11 to 1 428 and close to 11 on the 390 and don't see
any need to go otherwise on the Genesis.
Sure the fancy ones look great, but have read some not so good stories on a few different makes
and always think, whats wrong with the stock one.
They used them to crank the 67 427 cars. They were around your comp ratio.
I'm also a cheap poor bas@#$%. lol

[jayb]

I'm a fan of the mini-starters.  I've had poor luck over the years with the stock starters, although I wouldn't say that it was due to the compression ratio of the engines.  It was more due to the heat from the headers; the cars would start fine when cold, but once they heated up, the starter would not turn the engine fast enough to start in many cases.  I tried heat shields, wrapping the headers, seriously upgraded cables and batteries, etc., without a lot of success.  The mini-starters, with a gear reduction drive, pretty much solved the problems, although they have their own issues.  The Rob McC starter I've been using lately has been pretty good, and the Powermaster Ultratorque starter is pretty good too, although it doesn't engage all the way into the flywheel teeth like it should.

A couple of other comments are that the mini-starters are a lot easier to remove than the stockers because of their size, and also because most of them can be "clocked" to put the solenoid in a convenient location to make removal easier.  Due to their size they are also farther from the header tubes, helping with the heat issue.  One other thing that I think really helps is coated headers, because this keeps the heat in the engine compartment way down.  Starters don't like a lot of heat.  And finally, one drawback to the mini-starters is that they really need you to run the battery cable directly down to the solenoid on the starter, and use the factory starter solenoid to energize the solenoid on the starter.  I had some problems with that with my Mach 1 this summer; I tried to run the wire that energizes the factory solenoid direct to the Powermaster starter, and it wouldn't carry the current required to energize the Powermaster solenoid.  So, I ended up keeping that wire connected to the factory solenoid, and running the output from the factory solenoid, which usually goes direct to the factory starter, down to the Powermaster solenoid, with a 12 gauge wire (not the regular battery sized wire that you would run to the factory starter).  This worked really well, and the 13.6:1 530" engine in that car spins right over with no problems, hot or cold.

[fe66comet]

I am definetly going to be hot in the area due to the Doug's Headers with the crossover and space will more than likely be an issue. I was looking at the CVR 1.9 HP due to the heat sink built into the housing. Has anyone played around with those? Or is any brand better than the others?

[MT63AFX]

Just a good old stock re-man will do yeoman duty.
I have used Canadian Tire remans for cranking 11 to 1 428 and close to 11 on the 390 and don't see
any need to go otherwise on the Genesis.
Sure the fancy ones look great, but have read some not so good stories on a few different makes
and always think, whats wrong with the stock one.
They used them to crank the 67 427 cars. They were around your comp ratio.
I'm also a cheap poor bas@#$%. lol

Like Howie, I'm cheap too. People have issues with both mini and OE starters. I've had no issues with an OE rebuilt in my LR or TP (13:1+ CR) and my battery's in the trunk.

[GJCAT427]

I had issues with the reman starters on my 63 427 car. I finally broke down and bought a rob mc starter. Ya gotta remember a reman may or may not have as heavy field windings as when they were OEM. Remans always go for cheap to cut costs. Any OEM that ha not been touched will probly work providing it hasn`t been ground to death cranking. But remember these things are going on 45yrs or more soooooo.

[fe66comet]

Many reman starters come with aluminum wound fields as well as your Napa new replacements. Aluminum is not a very good conductor so amperage goes up and heat does too under load.

[390 Cougar Conv]

I bought a Powermaster XS Torque starter. Tired of changing starters in the parking lot.  My starters kept knocking out the front bushing. Also because of the headers I didn't want heat to destroy the re man starter.

[ScotiaFE]

Well the old 390 has one of those remans and this past season I had to change out the batt.
It was seven years old and getting weak.
I bought the starter and batt when I put the 390 back in.
I've run it with the same old uncoated Hookers.
And it's not like the Fairlane is some garage/trailer queen.
Just saying.

[JimNolan]

I wish they made 6 volt starters for an FE. They have bigger windings to carry the current that a 6 volt starter requires and has a lot faster cranking speed. I used to run them on Y-blocks that had 12V systems. Jim

[Chad D]

Why not take one to a local electric motor place?  We've got a couple around here, and they'll custom wind anything.  Sure, not cheap, but you get exactly what you want.

[fe66comet]

I have a guy who rewinds stuff for my projects to go to different voltages. And actually he is very reasonable. My main concern is size and heat. The headers I want to use are big and tight.

[JimNolan]

I have a guy who rewinds stuff for my projects to go to different voltages. And actually he is very reasonable. My main concern is size and heat. The headers I want to use are big and tight.

fe66comet,
   I can understand your concerns. The torque it takes to crank a V8 motor is constant. The product of voltage and current is flux. The magnetic flux turns the motor. The amount of flux we make is power. The formula for power is P=I X E.  That being the case if I double my voltage, I'll double my power. Since the power it takes to crank the engine is constant. We've doubled that power. The 6 volt starter is made of heavier windings than the 12 volt starter and can take the extra current because we've not increased the load on the windings current wise on the 6 volt starter. The problem I would foresee is the getting someone to make that starter. Taking more power out of the battery isn't a concern because it's not the battery that keeps us from starting a hot engine, it's the flux breakdown because of heat on the starter. This is just my way of looking at it. If you wonder why they don't make starters that'll do this, It's because with higher voltage they can make compontents (ie starter windings) smaller. You didn't get a better starter because you went to 12V. You got a cheaper one that provides that same constant cranking torque. But, the cheaper the starter, the more likely heat will affect it.

[Chad D]

I would posit that a great many starter problems (not to mention a plethora of other automotive electrical issues) are fixed by improving the grounding and bonding of the electrical system.  Relying on 40 year old grounds and current paths that have been improperly maintained or poorly patched to handle loads that they were not designed for seems more than a bit unrealistic.  Clean interconnects and good conductors sized for proper capacity for the loads they will see can improve function dramatically.

[ScotiaFE]

I agree.
My batt's in the trunk and use welding cable for the run. All soldered connections, Heavy duty grounds....blah, blah, blah.

The last thing you want is a misfire.