Drag Racing Discussions > Front Engine Dragsters

Correct starting & shut off procedure of a blower motor

<< < (5/7) > >>

Draw 3D:

--- Quote from: rooman on February 28, 2017, 05:00:55 AM ---Draw3D,
            all that coupemerc is suggesting is to get the oil through the motor before attempting to start it. We use exactly that procedure with Mark Vaught's 7.0 car. Roll the car out of the trailer and get it up on the jacks, pull the plugs and spin the  motor until we see oil pressure. Put the warm up plugs in and fire the motor--with the galleries etc primed there is sufficient oil pressure by the time the engine lights off the squirt bottle and then begins running on the pump. We then switch to the race plugs and fire the same way on the line. Once the engine has been spun to get oil pressure the first time each day there is no need to spin it for more than a couple of seconds to get pressure and it takes that long to light anyway.

Roo

--- End quote ---
I think he is using a block mounted starter like I am and a block mounted starter turns the motor at a slow rpm and pushing 60 wt oil takes more than a couple of seconds to build up pressure.


I have a pretty good starter and it turns the motor over at between 250 to 300 rpm, that means my oil pump, which is internal in stock location, is turning at 125 to 150 rpm and if you spin for a couple of seconds, it will see 5 revolutions and on my system, it will not buildup to any usable pressure.


I don't start my motor until I see at least 25 psi oil pressure, I would much rather have a dead battery than a dead motor.

ricardo1967:
I don't have it, but I like the idea of an oil filter head that can be primed with a drill. Peterson Fluid Systems makes them.

rooman:
Draw 3D,
              I understand what you are saying but we have been doing this for around 17 years with two different cars and have never had a bearing issue. Yes, we do have a blower starter but the original injected version of the motor that Mark ran for several years had a regular unit. As the current block is a former sprint car piece it does not have an internal oil pump so we have always run a remote unit and because of that our oil path from the pump to the bearings has always been longer, initially with a belt driven dry sump pump and more recently with an RCD front drive unit.
  When I spin it (with the plugs out) for the first time at an event it takes about 5-7 seconds to get full oil pressure (75+ lbs) but after that there are numbers on the dash by the time the motor actually lights at fire up. As long as the motor does not fire instantly at full throttle you should not have any problems.

Roo

wideopen231:
When we ran top alcohol cars.We would always get oil pressure firat thing every morning as soon as car was on jacks.Replace plugs wuth old run plugs that where warmup plugs.We would wait till close to run time if we had not pulled motor down and fire it up.Build some heat ,check for leaks,check vac at hat and bring it up to stage rpm.Shut everything down and we whwere ready to go for the day.
As for starting we pretty nuch did norm.Squirt fuel in hat,I would spin her over and pull mag wires a  after cpl seconds.Had another crew member feeding it till pump took over.

glofria:
The procedures are about the norm for starting an engine. We also use a priming pump with a one-way ball check valve and it helps relieve ware and tear on the starter and battery. One additional thing thing that we do save time and fuel is after starting the car up to warm the engine is cut the fuel shut off back some. This allows the engine to warm up faster. We also try to not wack the throttle during warm up as over time it may cause the crank hub to split (blown application).

Regarding oiling, we put a dry sump pump under the engine and prime it with a 18v cordless drill prior to our warm up procedure. We make our own pumps and with the sump pan there is a little of room to fit the pump between the rails. Not much, but some. Once the oil lines are filled you should have instant pressure.

The pump is hard to see in this photo, but it's there.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page