when you did your swap did you change the starter?

[phoenixdawg]

I am swapping into a 68 camaro and read somewhere about potential interferance with the starter on an LS1 and some after market company is now making a starte without the 'bullet' nose like the stock starter, any thoughts?

[Steve1968LS2]

I used a factory GM starter on my '69 LS1 project with no problem. Most likely depends on the headers you are running.

I am useing a POWERMASTER LS1 starter on my '68 LS2 project and it appears to be quite a bit smaller.

Hope this helps.

[phoenixdawg]

the powermaster is the one that I recall from whatever mag I was reading, most likely will upgrade.

[parsonsj]

Bringing back from the distant past ...

Steve: any new thoughts on your Powermaster starter? Jay over at FAST has analyzed my slow start via data logs and sees a significant voltage drop (to 8.9V). It could be the starter, so I'm doing some research on the matter.

thanks!
jp

[andrewb70]

I am not following how changing the starter would eliminate the voltage drop. Maybe I am misunderstanding something.

Andrew

[parsonsj]

A bad starter can consume more energy than it was designed for, resulting in more voltage drop. My starter is a junkyard piece, and one that has had considerable use as I tried to get the car to start for weeks! :)

I'm going to experiment this afternoon by starting the car with a battery charger charging the battery to see if the voltage drop is reduced, and if the car starts more quickly. Jay (at FAST) showed me in the log where the ECU reset due to low voltage, which took about 3s to do causing the bulk of the delay in starting.

I'd love to know what others see for voltage as the engine is cranked before starting. I figured that a significant voltage drop during starting was normal... but perhaps not?

jp

[trapin]

I have a '68 Camaro that I just swapped an LS1 into and I'm using the stock starter. There are absolutely no clearance issues whatsoever.

[Steve1968LS2]

I orginally was going to run the Powermaster starter, but the first ones they made were NOT clockable and in turn hit the headers.

So, I'm running a stock starter without any issues whatsoever.

The new Powermaster units are clockable, so they should fit fine. They did seem to be better made, but then again my OEM one has worked fine

I haven't checked the voltage during cranking.. I will see if I can get that done :)

[parsonsj]

I haven't checked the voltage during cranking.. I will see if I can get that done Cool! Thanks very much!

jp

[DCx]

stock rebuild off ebay. once its installed tons of room. its kind of a pain to get in there with hooker headers installed but it is possible.

[Trevor @ Texas Speed]

Are you running FAST XFI with the XIM ignition box? If so, the XIM boxes have had problems. I have two of them. For no reason whatsoever, the car becomes very hard to start. It will go so far as to blow stock starters off of the block. It has done it on both of our XFI-equipped cars. I thought it might be worth mentioning. :)

Trevor
Texas Speed & Performance


A bad starter can consume more energy than it was designed for, resulting in more voltage drop. My starter is a junkyard piece, and one that has had considerable use as I tried to get the car to start for weeks! :)

I'm going to experiment this afternoon by starting the car with a battery charger charging the battery to see if the voltage drop is reduced, and if the car starts more quickly. Jay (at FAST) showed me in the log where the ECU reset due to low voltage, which took about 3s to do causing the bulk of the delay in starting.

I'd love to know what others see for voltage as the engine is cranked before starting. I figured that a significant voltage drop during starting was normal... but perhaps not?

jp

[parsonsj]

Are you running FAST XFI with the XIM ignition box?No... I'm old school. :) I'm using the XFI with an eDIST and Crank Decoder.

jp