how much can a stock 3.1/2.8 starter crank?

[Z2_4cams]

my starter was brand new last august and only saw use until october. my engine is a 2.8 block with 3100 pistons, rods and crank. so the piston has a deck height of .022". there are .018" milled off the 3400 heads and I'm using aluminum head (.060" compressed thickness) head gaskets. I finally get everything done and go to start 'er up. with a battery charger hooked to the battery, I turn the key and you can here it go three times, like it's about to catch (you can hear three pistons fire, then the fourth causes the starter to stall, the voltage to drop to zero and a puff of air out the tb. then it'll catch itself crank another piston over and the 6th will dothe same as the fourth, if you hold it, it'll repeat the same way, one decent go, then the voltage drop/ starter stall. kinda like: pfff, pfff, pfff, caackk, pff caack, pfff, cack.... think i'm running too much compression? I only figured the SCR to be about 10:1. there also a bit of a metallic sound at the "cacck" maybe the starter skipping a tooth, I dunno. help me!!!

[sharkey]

check your firing order. it sounds like a plug wire could be in the wrong spot. its a sure sign when its pufing smoke out the intake that its got ignition issues. also check your ground straps and make sure they are all on. if you dont have a good enough ground near the starter, it will lose power and will stall the starter.

[Guest]

Does the battery charger have a booster built in? If your voltage drops below 11 while cranking it for only 1-2 revolutions then it seems to me you have a bad battery. Like a bad cell would be my guess. Your starter should be able to crank an engine over even if it had 12:1 compression.

Something is drawing a lot of current which I doubt, or your battery is shot.

Shaun

[Z2_4cams]

first of all, it doens't matter how long i crank before, it's always the 4th one to cause a problem. so that kinda rules out the plug wires. it's not smoke out the tb, it's jsut air (it didn't even combust :S) I have all my ground wires, (checked 73 times, 3 in the front, 2 on the back) my battery charger has a "start" setting that I think is 12 volts 6 A, or 12 volt 12 A. I tried a different new battery and it didn't change. also i'm not sure if would be an issue but it's only 87 octane in the tank.

[geoffinbc]

Rotate it by hand or crank it over with no plugs in. It should now crank freely with no hard spots. If there is then you have mechanical interferance somewhere. If it moves freely through the whole rotation then you can rule out mechanical interferance. I would then start looking at the firing order you have set up and also check valve preload.

[Z2_4cams]

I pulled the plugs tonight, and it turned over fine. I'm beginning to think someone in my shop might have fuxored my starter! but it brings me back to the original q, how muc h can the old style starters crank?

[1QUICKHATCH]

I pulled the plugs tonight, and it turned over fine. I'm beginning to think someone in my shop might have fuxored my starter! but it brings me back to the original q, how muc h can the old style starters crank?

no one has used your starter but you! I thought about it but diden't get around to bolting it in