Seems i have a little to slow speed on the starter to give the Hunt magnet a really good spark, i would like to spin it faster with a 24 V battery but will it hold up or burn to pieces fast?? (the starter motor) It,s an altered with BBC, stack injection and methanol, gives it a shot of gasoline down the stacks at startup but that doesn't help much.
You shouldn't need 24 to crank it over unless the compression is super high. Maybe you have a bad ground or the power wire isn't large enough for the length that you are running. Resistance increases with wire length. That being said. you can run a 6 volt starter on 12 volts, so I would imagine a 24 would work with a 12 volt starter. I've also seen guys run two starters. Or maybe you should try a high torque starter. Lots of options, 24 volts might not be the way to go. How many rpm are you turning on cranking?
Related to what KrisKustomPaint said, I'd measure the voltage drop on the positive and negative circuits while cranking. First the entire circuit from B+ battery post to starter terminal, the B- starter housing. Then each circuit in steps A drop over maybe 0.1 volt DC would benefit from bigger wire or cleaner, better connection, and the step wise measurement will point to the culprit.
You want amps, not voltage. I ran two 12 volt batteries in parallel in my Mustang drag car, it gave me lots of kick but only 12 volts. It is the same thing with boats that run two batteries, they are hooked up in parallel to effectively make one big 12 volt battery. Don
If all else fails, you may have to go to an external plug-in starter. That will also lighten the car considerably.
just curious.....does a Hunt magneto have an impulse coupler? some magnetos on old tractor engines and airplanes do
check out Rock Racing Batteries. They have a 3 post battery that allows you to run your starter on 16v which will really spin your starter and run everything else on 12v.
What Don said. 15.35:1 BBC and I run two deep cycle bats that plugs in to start, and have yet to fry the starter. I do carry a spare in the trailer. Plus with twice the battery I do not have to charge them between rounds.
With a 16v charger of course hehehehehe, seriously though, you are one of the people whose posts are always worthwhile and I really don,t want that to sound like a smart alec answer.
I have a 540" 12.6-1 BBC with a 14-71 Littlefield, a 44 amp mag, a cam driven fuel pump, etc. It takes quite a starter to turn it over. After wasting a few flex plates and flywheels, I got a Mezeire 10 pitch flexplate and one of their starters. Man what a difference. Expensive and worth every penny.
We used 24 volts on the starter of a small block Ford in a street stock dirt track car with no problems. We used a knife switch to change the batteries to series for starting if necessary and parallel for charging with the 12 volt alternator. Everything else was run off the first 12 volt battery. Never burned up a starter on 24 volt. Ruined a couple trying to run more current through them with the 2 - 12 volts in parallel.
I am a little confused by all good answers... some say that more amps by paralell is the way to go while some prefer to put them in serie and run 24 for higher speed.... My engine (461) has 13,5:1
I had a similar problem with one 12 volt battery, swapped to a Turbostart 16 volt and charger, spun my 15-1 572 like the plugs were out of it. I ran the whole car on 16 volts, no problem.
OR you could fix the actual problem. The magnets in the mag are weak or the clearance is off a bit. A good vertex will spark at one rpm . Like the others have said lower the plug gap and if needed have someone freshen the magneto. We have a shop in Indianapolis ( Magtech 317-241-4100) that builds the magnetos..
The Hunt magnet is new from alkydigger, i will try to lower the gap on the plugs, Which by the way are br7es. Thanks.