Hot start
Turbo Mini Forums

When my cars a bit toasty, especially in the summer, is an arse to start. It can take up to four attempts. I think this is due to the hot turbo vaporising the fuel in the carb above it. I do have the metro turbo heat shield, but it doesn't appear to do a great deal! Its not the smoothest of looks, especally in a petrol station!!

Just wondering if anyone else suffers from this and whether anybody has come up with any cunning plans to either reduce it or eradicate it. (hears hoping!)

Cheers,

Choppster.

Hannibal: There are two ways we can do this: the easy way and the hard way. In a few minutes my friends and I are going to come down on you like your worst nightmare. You're gonna wish the Earth had opened up and swallowed you whole.
bad guy: What's the easy way?
Hannibal: That WAS the easy way.

On our Set-ups the carbs sits right above a very hot turbo so hot starts will be an issue from time to time.

When my engine is hot it does take a little while to start, maybe 6/8 seconds of turning over.

Bonnet vents might help loose some of the heat.

Some people let the car run out of fuel by turning off the fuel pump. When you want to restart by pumping fresh cold fuel into the float bowl can help.

I have a vented and raised bonnet, but turning the pump off and then starting afresh with cold juice sounds cunning!

Thankyouplease!

Oh, by the way giallofly, do you use a quaife LSD? I posted a question earlier about them. I'm thinking of getting on.

C.

Hannibal: There are two ways we can do this: the easy way and the hard way. In a few minutes my friends and I are going to come down on you like your worst nightmare. You're gonna wish the Earth had opened up and swallowed you whole.
bad guy: What's the easy way?
Hannibal: That WAS the easy way.

No No a old Salisbury....

I have an idea on how to cure this. A couple of my mates both have supercharged G60 golfs, and they both do the same thing......after the engine has been switched off after a run, the fuel pump continues to run. When first noticed they both thought there was a problem, but in fact the clever bleeders at vw have put a FUEL temp sensor in the fuel rail. The VW suffers from heat soak in much the same way as the mini turbo engine, and so it pumps fuel from the tank round the fuel system and then back again to keep the fuel rail cool and prevent hot start problems from vapourised fuel.
I was thinking a similar thing could be achieved by adding an extra fuel outlet from the float chamber, with an solenoid valve in line. Wired to a push button so that when you push the button, the fuel pump starts and the valve from the float chamber opens. This valve is routed into the return line to tank, so basically cold fuel is pumped from the tank, through the float chamber and back to tank.
I reckon pressing and holding this button for maybe 5 - 10 secs before you attempt to start the engine when hot, should cool the float chamber and make sure there is liquid (not vapourised) fuel ready to start up with.

sounds better than running an anti-percolation fan like the r5 gtt, i think the maestro and montego turbo's ran anti-perc fans too

Good idea that! May look into engineering it!

Cheers

Choppo

Hannibal: There are two ways we can do this: the easy way and the hard way. In a few minutes my friends and I are going to come down on you like your worst nightmare. You're gonna wish the Earth had opened up and swallowed you whole.
bad guy: What's the easy way?
Hannibal: That WAS the easy way.

Back in my jet ski days,the norm was a primer(squirt fuel into inlet) instead of choke....
Dunno if this helps

Metro turbo weekend driver,Mini turbo in the making again!

They call me Mr Vegarrrdd!

Mine does the same thing and its a bit annoying! Has anyone cured this as of yet and if so what did yas do??

1/4 Mile 14.3secs 96Mph Terminal 10psi of boost.


Fibreglass Parts? - http://www.tdkracing.co.uk/
Split Rims? - http://www.force-racing.co.uk/

I just live with it - spin the engine with the throttle wide open and it flushes the vaporised fuel through so that as soon as the mixture between the plug points is anywhere near the right level, it fires up.Agree its embarassing in some circumstances, especially if the battery is less than perfect and it starts to slow down before it fires.Its a bit like starting a recalcitrant diesel in that you must keep it spinning till it goes.If you stop and start there is always some more fuel vaporising betwen attempts.The cool fuel idea sounds really cool !

Get an electric fuel pump and connect it to the ignition so it only runs wen the key is on acc, so if the car is hot u just switch the key to acc let the pump run abit puttin cold fuel in the rail then she will tick over.

yup i have the same problem... after a run i guessed it was evaporating fuel that made it hard to start, so i added a carb primer button, the way i have it wired when you press the button the fuel pump runs filling the carb with nice cold fuel again, starts every time :)

That mini is determined to Kill me!!!!

Edited by Turbo Tel on 15th Nov, 2008.

website:- http://www.terryhunt.co.uk

What about insulating the manifold better? I have the carb shield on with an added layer of heat reflector.

Perhaps wrapping my manilfold willl help as well.

1/4 Mile 14.3secs 96Mph Terminal 10psi of boost.


Fibreglass Parts? - http://www.tdkracing.co.uk/
Split Rims? - http://www.force-racing.co.uk/

clicky


unusual not to see it listed as an electric supercharger

ps how i used to fire it up,
1)pump off
2)throttle to the floor
3)turn her over
4)snap throttle closed
5)it would fire up every time, dont forget to flick the pump on tho, you dont get too far

Edited by Brett on 15th Nov, 2008.

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

thats probs why it works for me cause mine is fuel injected with fuel rail, but i c wat u mean.

Edited by Tweaked on 15th Nov, 2008.

i have the same issue v embarissing in the middle of a petrol station and all ur mates think oooo the mini broke down again!!!! but its just charicter!!!(dam thing)

"Tuning should be a compromise between what is possible and what is necessary"

10)Thou shalt always quest for more power

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

i never had this problem before on any of my mini's before i turbo'd my 72. but it does occur now, after some head scratchin!!!

my old 48 dodge is a sidevalve straight six 4.8 ltr. and has its fuel lines in metal running partway along the block before it rises to the carb, thus, vaporisation(or however its spelt)!!!

in the interestest of originality i have kept it the same.
every fill up took 10mins to start up again and felt that this was a bit unpredictable for the weddings i had to do to earn a crust.

my solution was to pour a bottle of cold water over the preceeding lines, and hey presto!!!

so my new trick on my mini, is a window washer directed at the float bowl. a 4-5 second squirt cools the bowl enough for a first time start. bit of steam but it works!!
hope it helps
regards
colin

mine tends to be a bugger to start aswell when it gets hot but i made up my own custom ally heat shield around the carb

also my fuel pump is hooked up to the igiont live so i just let it buzz for a tiny bit then crank and hey presto no problems!!!

Did anyone come up with some plans for toms cunning solution to this problem?

If not could a float bowl extension plate not be made with a take off?

And plumb this to the return with a valve operated by a switch?

"Tuning should be a compromise between what is possible and what is necessary"

10)Thou shalt always quest for more power

The washer bottle method seems to be by far the simplest & safest

washer bottle method? ie u sray the bottom of the carb with water? or have i missed the point

"Tuning should be a compromise between what is possible and what is necessary"

10)Thou shalt always quest for more power