Starter motor advice

[Dannybe11]

My 1600 xflow is coming back from the machine shop next week hopefully (it now has 1300 pistons so compression will be a bit higher) anyhow I felt the starter (inertia type) was not turning over as fast as it could in the engines standard state and also one of the mounting lugs has also snapped off so was thinking about a new starter. Notice there are replacement powerlite classic/phh ones available on eBay, anyone got any experience with these? Alternatively I could convert to pre engaged starter but assume I’d need to change ring gear on flywheel? I’m sure I counted the number of teeth in the past and was 135T. Any advise would be greatly received

[Miniliteman]

Normally an inertia ringgear has 110 teeth, so I would the number of count the teeth again.
Be careful when buying a cheapish starter motor, seen reports of people using these that the teeth quickly disintegrate.

[FrankC]

My 1600 xflow is coming back from the machine shop next week hopefully (it now has 1300 pistons so compression will be a bit higher) anyhow I felt the starter (inertia type) was not turning over as fast as it could in the engines standard state and also one of the mounting lugs has also snapped off so was thinking about a new starter. Notice there are replacement powerlite classic/phh ones available on eBay, anyone got any experience with these? Alternatively I could convert to pre engaged starter but assume I’d need to change ring gear on flywheel? I’m sure I counted the number of teeth in the past and was 135T. Any advise would be greatly received

Which machine shop did you use ?

[Dannybe11]

Thomas Mckean in Dumfries. One the best decisions I have made as John’s knowledge and experience is exceptional. I’ve heard good things about AGRA engineering as well if that is closer to you, but they were about twice the price…

[FrankC]

I’m in the Edinburgh area but there’s nobody close to hand I’d trust (or reasonably priced) to do any machine work if and when I’d need anything done. Haven’t heard of Thomas Mckean before so I’ll keep them in mind.
Was it just the bottom end you had built or complete engine ?

Cheers

[Dannybe11]

Not really a straightforward answer unfortunately, I supplied the bottom end intact and they stripped it. My xflow has liners fitted and one wasn’t done properly so they redid that, as well as reboring to 1660 (was already at 1640). He also reground the crank and supplied a new bearings for the bottom end. He also dowelled the cam sprocket for the new cam I supplied. The bottom end was put together so basically I just had to add the timing chain cover and sump. I bought a head that was ‘refurbished’ but got them to check it and they weren’t happy with it, primarily the valve springs weren’t right so has done a bit of work to it. Will my engine be a top spec xflow that will put out 140bhp plus…no, but it’ll hopefully be a solid engine with mild tune which is what I was looking for…

[FrankC]

Thanks for the honest reply Danny… hope it all works out