What starter do I need?

moondog897

moondog897

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I'm finally finishing up my LS swap from a subi in my rail. It has a 2d mendeola and I figured the starter would be fine but it definitely doesn't have the torque for the motor. As soon as I put the plugs back in after building oil pressure it'll barely make a complete revolution. This is after charging the battery and tried jumping with my truck to rule out the battery. It did roll the subi over slow last year too so I should have known this would happen. I see several different options from cbm and Kartek just not sure which I need. The motor is an n/a Ls1 with mild cam, 2d mendeola and cbms adapter plate flywheel and Kennedy clutch. 

 
couple of options depending on how the Case is machined, 

First i would try the IMI-101N,   starter knowledge, the IMI-101 is a .75-1.00 kilowatt starter, good for VW motors, the 101N is a 1.4 kilowatt starter, this will be perfect for a stock standard compression LS style motor, they do make many starters like a 101HD that is a 2.0 K, also they make a MR version it cranks the motor around 800rpm compared to standard 350-400 rpms,  

so the 101N should be good,  if it starter grinds from time to time then the adapter on the starter is to low and you can clearance bell housing and hold the starter upward a little 

so far the Power-Master adapter plate is machined about .015 higher and so far has not any grinding on the flywheel,  its just the Power-Master VW starter,  it is also a 1.4KW 

Long term use,  the IMI can be rebuilt, the power master would have to source your own parts or purchase another,   

Chris is the owner of IMI, great company 

 
I would try hand cranking the engine to see if there is an issue. It should not load the starter that bad. 

 
Wrecked said:
I would try hand cranking the engine to see if there is an issue. It should not load the starter that bad. 
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Definitely not an issue with the engine itself, rolls over by hand as it should. I think this starter was weak before the swap because it had a hard time with the old engine as well.

 
101N

Tilton makes a starter that will work in place of the 101N.

More expensive, but more cranking speed/power.

 
Interesting discussion, I have 3 starters, they are all the hitorque from kartek.  One is broken and 2 are working. I hate changing starters, would I be better off rebuilding my broken one, buying a new one or rebuilding one of the working ones?

 
Five.five-six said:
Interesting discussion, I have 3 starters, they are all the hitorque from kartek.  One is broken and 2 are working. I hate changing starters, would I be better off rebuilding my broken one, buying a new one or rebuilding one of the working ones?
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depends on budget, 

at the end of the day, they are Toyota style starters,  i purchased a toyota starter from Autozone gutted it and replaced the bendex and other parts and then took it back to autozone for the warranty and got another set of internals,  LOL,  ok that was a little shady, but that was a couple of years back, 

you can also send it back to Chris at IMI, if it is a IMI, 

if it is a power-master the customer service truly sucks and you can get the parts from IMI and fix them,  

I have also seen some gears pop off the end, so you can get new clips, but some have welded the gear on the end and that fixes it,  

 
J Alper said:
depends on budget, 

at the end of the day, they are Toyota style starters,  i purchased a toyota starter from Autozone gutted it and replaced the bendex and other parts and then took it back to autozone for the warranty and got another set of internals,  LOL,  ok that was a little shady, but that was a couple of years back, 

you can also send it back to Chris at IMI, if it is a IMI, 

if it is a power-master the customer service truly sucks and you can get the parts from IMI and fix them,  

I have also seen some gears pop off the end, so you can get new clips, but some have welded the gear on the end and that fixes it,  
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I think they are all IMI... budget?  What’s that?  I did have one but as you know, I’m building a turbo VW car and that budget thingy flew out the window a long time ago.  I should have my head examined.  

In your estimation, is a rebuilt IMI “just as good as new”. The reason being, and I should update my build thread, but the gas tank is a giant pain in the a$$ to get out and back in which makes bleeding the clutch slave, changing the starter and a host of other things a giant pain in the a$$ as well.

 
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Five.five-six said:
I think they are all IMI... budget?  What’s that?  I did have one but as you know, I’m building a turbo VW car and that budget thingy flew out the window a long time ago.  I should have my head examined.  

In your estimation, is a rebuilt IMI “just as good as new”. The reason being, and I should update my build thread, but the gas tank is a giant pain in the a$$ to get out and back in which makes bleeding the clutch slave, changing the starter and a host of other things a giant pain in the a$$ as well.
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I had IMI rebuild 2 of mine.  Neither worked when I installed them.

I sent them back again and they rebuilt them again, now they work.

So, IMO, no, rebuild is not as good as new.

 
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