turn over time
 

anyone know how to decrease the turnover time so the car starts right up? I remember a mechanic I used to go to doss something to the car so it fired right up after I told him that ity took too long. any ideas?

A highly-maintained battery and good grounds, with a good charging system, makes a big difference. So does the proper gearing in the starter.

Strong battery, good ignition components, good valve seal all help in quick starts. Not sure what your mech did. On a fuel injected car, if fuel pressure bleeds off / pump is weak long crank times will result.

But, a cranking of say 5 seconds before the engine fires does help engine life as oil pressure has a chance to come up a bit before the engine is running.

My trucks still have carburetors, when cold I crank a bit then push the peddle to set the choke.

Battery, plugs, wires, valve seals, rotor, distributor are all less than a year. I guess starter is original, not sure. My car has automatic remote start and so usually I would use that and the car would turn on, but now it will crank, then I would have to do it again. Is that possibly a failing starter? Even if I do use key, I have to crank for about 6 to 8 seconds.

For some reason that I'll never understand my cold starts are quicker if I depress and release the accelerator a couple of times before cranking.

The fuel pump check valve, fuel accumulator, and fuel injectors are common leak down points. Less commmon is the fuel distributor. When I bought my wagon it had horrendous start times, 15-20 seconds. Turns out somebody dicked with the air horn plate and didn't get it centered. It would hang up before going back to the zero position and attempting to start in less than the zero position would flood the engine.

You might want to check out the CPS unless it's fairly new.

what is cps?

Not valve stem seals, but valve sealing as in where the face of the valve meets the seat. ( AKA valve grind ) Valve stem seals can be changed with the head on and bad ones only cause increased oil consumption not hard starts.

Loss of valve sealing will cause low compression and difficult starting. Have you done a leakdown and compression test?


The starter is a electric motor that spins the engine. They can half fail ( lose one set of field windings, unless it is a perm magnet type ) and crank slowly but the difference is obvious.


It is sounding like there is a actual problem that can't be diagnosed remotely using limited information.

have not done a leakdown or compression test? any special tools needed?

CPS = Crankshaft Position Sensor. Early stages of failure can be slow starting. In time will only start when engine is cold not hot.

Compression test is where you pull the spark plugs, disable the ignition and fuel, install a compression gauge in one spark plug hole, prop the throttle open then crank until the gauge levels off.

This lets you know if there is good valve / ring seal.

A leak down is where you put the piston at the top with both valve closed then pump air in the spark plug hole. Leakdown gauges then tell you the % leakage, I tend just to pump in air and judge good / bad. Air will leak out of :

Oil fill ( common leakage past the piston rings and not always bad )
tail pipe ( if the exhaust valves leak, a slight Hiss is normal on high mile motors )
Throttle (Intake valve leakage, bad as this kills power )
Radiator fill ( bad head gasket / cracked head or very rarely cracked cylinder bore )