I have an integra with a b18c that has 12.5:1 comp pistons in it. I recently had to pretty much rebuild it and now that the compression's back up after replacing a busted piston and all the rings, I'm having a starting issue. my friend has narrowed it down to the starter drawing too much amperage from the battery. I believe it was drawing 14v and the grounds and all wiring checked out just fine. I'm trying to find out if a stock starter should still be enough at 12.5:1 and mine just went bad or if I need a high torque starter or maybe just an optima battery to compensate. I'd like to hear from someone who has dealt with similar compression, no offense but I'm in waaay too deep on this car, money-wise, to play around with guess work on parts I cant return and would like some reliable advice to go on. Thanks

 

if you have the geared Honda stock starter, it should crank it, they sell identical ones aftermarket for high compression engines on domestics, what gauge wire are you running from the battery to the starter, are you running a distributor or crank trigger? if you have a crank trigger, MSD sells a starter saver, which is a module that retards timing on starting. The starter on my 5.0 in the Lincoln is about the same size as my Accord starter

 

I have a stock remanufactured Bosch unit and have almost 13 to 1 and it starts my car fine ..did you use a parts store one, if so that is your problem

 

You shouldn't need one unless you're endurance racing. I've built 13.5:1 setups that crank over without problems.

 

yep, Honda used oversize starters, the only minor issue you might run into is if it gets hot it might not want to crank, but if that happens you can get a wrap for it or something

 

Never had a problem with OEM or Aftermarket.

The amount of instantaneous torque a good starter has will have no problem starting race engines so street compression will not be a problem. Your problem may lie in the rebuild you did.

 

check the power and ground first, make sure the battery is good etc, if this doesn't work, I would go to a local automotive electrical place and have it rebuilt or see if they have one in stock, I have had zero luck with box store starters, I got 4 bad ones in a row once for the 86, right out of the box, several bad ones for the 98, and just ended up getting one rebuilt for the Lincoln after three O reilie ones failed in a row. I had to pay to have it put in too as I'm down with my back

 

How hard is it to turn the engine over by hand with a ratchet and the spark plugs out?

 

The starter is oem as well as the wiring. I am 100% sure it isn't a weak battery or the wires, there's no loss of power between wires and the battery works fine in my other teg. The starter, itself, is just drawing too much amperage. It's not abnormally hard to crank by hand, starts when it's hooked up to jumper cables so I don't see how the rebuild would have anything to do with it and I don't have a crank trigger.

I guess what I'm trying to get figured out at this point is whether or not it seems normal for a starter to draw the extra 2v bc of the compression or if it's in fact bad. It makes sense that way in my head but I'm an idiot when it comes to electric issues. Just don't wanna replace the starter to find out I only needed a bigger battery to compensate for the extra draw

 

Amperage is electrical work. Is it having to work harder because the starter motor is seizing or because the engine is hard to spin?

When my car was on the street with 12:1, the starter never sounded like it wasn't going to spin the engine over unless the battery was dead

 

Could also be poor grounding.

 

is there a good ground strap between the block and body?

 

True.

Its easy to add a chassis to engine ground and see what happens. Worth a shot

 

I'm just going to find an optima or starter to borrow from someone. I feel like I'm going in circles here... Lol

 

13+ compression here and I am still running the 1995 stock oem starter! I have good ground cables at all stock locations. Replaced the factory ground canles with 4-8 awg

 

Poor grounding is a problem that is hard to diagnose. Things still work, but not as good or get worse with load or rpm, etc.

 

If it starts with a jump start, its the connections or the starter, like I said the starter on my towncar is almost identical to most honda starters, and it can crank a v8 easy, geared starters have a shitload of torque, how do you know your grounds are ok? They can have an oxide coating between the terminal and ground, you can't see it from looking, clean the terminals and use vaseline on them before they go back together,it stops corrosion

 

My bad, I meant to say put the terminal together then put vaseline over it, same with battery terminals

 

because I have a friend who does wiring for a living and has for a long time who knows how to test for bad grounds.

 

Well good luck to you sir!

 

Thanks ma'am

 

Let's see I,ve been playing with electrical stuff since I was a little kid, probably at least 30 years, I know a little, you don't test a ground, you unbolt it, clean it until its shiny,same with where it mounts, then bolt it back together, it takes a few moments, that's how you verify a good ground, now your meter may say its good, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have resistance to slow down the starter, dc circuits behave different at high amperage, this is basic car repair,remove and clean your terminals

 

Hi,

Had an almost identical issue with the same motor in a EG. My problem however cropped as I had relocated my battery to the boot. Had a couple of loose connections as well.

Eventually after doing everything possible no solution. Finally ended up being diagnosed as a weak starter. Did not have access to the parts required to rebuild the same so ended up buying a used starter from Honda Tech and voila all problems disappeared.

Might wanna open your starter and have it looked into.

Jignesh

 

You trying to be funny with this ma'am business?

 

Battery relocated? If yes, how did you run the ground? Most people do it incorrectly.