On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 9:18 PM, David Leonard
<wdleonard@gmail.com> wrote:
Yup, spins with no sign of firing at all! It only spins easily by hand when the plugs are out.. otherwise it is a one-compression-at-a-time kind of exercise. Compression is normal.. I am well familiar with its feel.
I am currently leaning toward a intermittent condition with my CAS wiring or the bad gas/flooding issue. At least it has made me think harder about my CAS as a single point failure and review the wiring.
Thanks for all the suggestions.
Dave Leonard
Cranking speed is important for starting a rotary. If cranking compression has been reduced by a fuel flooding having removed all of the oil from the working chamber, starting may not be possible.
Unresposive cranking with a soft sounding fluf or pop now and then is typical. Poor fuel vaporization ends with fuel burning rather than the crisp explosion required for starting. The heat of compression is required to vaporize the fuel, so cranking speed affects leakdown time, and heat of compression. Also slow cranking speed may limit CAS performance.
The racer has a jump battery port and two jump batteries in the tow tractor used to start every time.
Battery plate area controls voltage drop while cranking. Starting may use over 100 amps and drop battery voltage below minimums for some equipment. The racer used a little garden tractor battery, and we ran an alternator off of the differential pinion shaft, but you only get one or two starting attempts with that little
battery. We lost one weekend because of that battery so I installed a group 24 paste battery and took out some ballast blocks. Never a problem since. That car has not run for 3 years and the battery still cranks the engine up just fine. I spin it now and then and add some oil to keep it alive.
A squirt of motor oil from the shop oil can into each housing, and a jump battery to add plate area, and I bet it starts right up. On the other hand I have two MSD-6ALs, so flooded or too lean makes no difference at all.
Lynn E. Hanover