Hi everyone,
We just finished putting together our new motor for our 2500 saloon. We
have a 2.7L overbore, extractors, 2.5" free flow exhaust, fast road cam,
flowed head with bigger valves, hepolite pistons, fully electronic -
high energy ignition running iridium plugs and magnacore leads, bosch
pump, K&N filter on custom airbox for maximum cold air ducting - and a
few other goodies I probably forgot. We were expecting between
180-200bhp and so far have only covered 40km in it and won't start
pushing it until we have it nicely run in. It is lovely though.
I have a problem getting her to start though. We are running a second
hand starter which we were sure was good and the battery had been
sitting for at least 2 months while we were building the new motor. We
charged the battery up and got things running - but now we have problems
getting her to start regularly.
When it is cold she starts a treat - first go - and with a glorious
roar.
When it is warm it is difficult to start (after a run for as little as 5
minutes - we are usually reading around a 1/4 on the temp gauge.). It
sounds like the battery is mostly flat and she just gives a few pathetic
turns and sometimes just a relay click. After three or four goes at
this sort of attempt it will sometimes fire.
Last night after a test run I returned to the house when she was nice
and hot (after a run for 30-40 minutes) and she was reading a solid 1/2
on the temp gauge - and my electric fan was coming on now and then to
regulate the temp. While still idling in the garage I took a few notes.
With the ignition in the on position the voltmeter in the dash read
12.2V, I verified this at the battery and found that we had 12.2 when
idling, 11.8 when idling and electric fan running, I also found that we
had 11.95 volts at the alternator whilst idling without the electric
fan.
I turned her off and let her sit for a minute. I then tried to start
her up again and it sounded like a flat battery and there was no way it
was going to turn over enough to fire. Even though she was running like
a treat only moments before. I tried and tried and all we were doing
was draining the battery and getting nowhere. Even with jumper leads
off my big 4WD battery it would not fire. With the ignition key off we
read 12.2V across the battery.
I left it to sit in the garage thinking that there was nothing wrong
with the battery and there was a chance it was heat related.
This morning I returned to the garage - pulled the choke out - turned
the key (voltmeter reading a shade under 13V in the dash compared to the
12.2V the previous night) and she fired and ran very happily. NO EFFORT
INVOLVED
It has been suggested that the new motor is still of course rather tight
and when hot the metals are expanded and the starter just cannot turn
the motor over sufficiently to start it.
It has also been suggested that my battery has insufficient cranking
amps to do the warm/hot start.
It is also possible the battery has just shat itself - but if this were
the case I reckon trying to start with the jumper leads would have
worked.
Can anyone suggest what might be the problem?
She starts fine when cold, difficultly when warm and not at all when
hot.
Glen Johnson
Head of Creative Services
Little Devil Media
L2 - 83 Salamanca Place,
Battery Point, Tasmania.
Australia
Phone (+61 3) 6224 8988
Facsimile (+61 3) 6224 3545
http://www.littledevil.com.au <http://www.littledevil.com.au/>
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