Slow turnover

[KevJ+2]

I'm not sure whether this is posted in the right place as the problem is leaning towards the starter, but here goes -
My engine is in my rolling chassis - all reconditioned and only filled with oil. The spark plugs are out and there are no belts attached, so it should be a fast turnover.
The starter is a recon unit from Sue Miller (10 lugs) and the ring gear is new from SJ (110 teeth).
The engine turns over freely by ratchet on front pulley and nothing binds.
I have attached a jump lead from a battery earth to different good earth's, and turned the starter by connecting the starter lead directly to the battery +
I have today put a clamp meter over the + on turnover and got 135 amps. The starter (free running) reads 45 amps. I have tried this with two good 017 batteries but it still turns over slowly.
I am worried that if I don't solve this, the oil is not getting pushed to the moving parts.
All thoughts welcome.
Regards,
Kev.

[rgh0]

A new engine can be fairly tight and slow to crank with the plugs out until it is run in. How slow is slow is hard to tell.

It is best to try to pre- fill the oil passages and pump by pumping oil in through the pressure tapping. Then you should get pressure almost immediately when you crank it just like when you start a normally used engine.

cheers
Rohan

[KevJ+2]

Thanks Rohan,
My main concern is that the engine turns over quite easily by ratchet on the front pulley.The rebuild was only new rings and shells so not tight at all. Do you think the amps drawn on the turnover are alright? I can only think it's the starter and I'm tempted to try another or to swap it for a high torque one.
Kev.

[oldchieft]

I would connect the jumper to the mounting bolt for the starter.

Then try a different battery,

Jon the Chief

[KevJ+2]

Thanks Jon,
Yep, done both those things.
Just getting the wah wah wah, what I need is wawawawawawa
Kev.

[arcangel]

I just installed a gear reduction starter on my Europa TCS. With all plugs removed, the motor spun the engine quicker than I thought possible. With the plugs re-installed the motor didn't slow down much on startup. The plus side on the higher cranking speed was getting oil pressure up fairly quickly. The car had sat for a year but It took only around four crank attempts to get oil pressure off the peg, got full pressure on the fifth.

When I get to working on my Plus 2, I'll be installing a gear reduction starter on it also.

JT (in sizzling San Diego, Ca)

[ericbushby]

Hello Kev,
My old lucas starter in good condition drew 40 amps free running on the bench as spec., so your 45 is close enough. It took 190 amps to crank the engine painfully slowly on starting. It barely dragged it over compression. A new powerlite geared starter motor took 160 amps to spin the engine very satisfactorily 1 hour later.
I am a bit surprised at your mention of ten pegs. If you mean teeth on the pinion I thought 9 teeth was correct, but I may be wrong because I haven't counted the teeth on my starter ring.
Eric in Burnley
1967 S3SE DHC