• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Spitfire Spitfire didnt start, but then did.

Share this page

J

Joe_Pinehill

Jedi Hopeful
Offline
I'm in NJ, its been cold for two weeks, (below freezing). I like to start the Spitfire (1978) at least two times a week, even if I dont drive it, to keep the battery up, and fresh gas in the carb.

I tried on Tuesday night. I could tell the battery was weak, it did crank, but did not fire. I checked for a spark, by plugging a sparkplug into one of the cables and grounding it, and it was sparking. It was late, and rather then get frustrated, thought i would try the next day.

Wednesday, I got home, charged the battery for 2 hours, and turned the key and instantly fired to life.

Can the weak battery alone do that? I was wondering if I should unscrew the drain plug in the carb and make sure I dont have water that might have frozen that evening.

Should you semi-routinely drain a carb?
 
Joe, it might have been nothing more than particularly cold temperatures weakening the battery and thickening the engine oil. This past Sunday, with early morning temps below 0, my poor Herald flat-out refused to start. The battery is fairly new and strong, but I think the 20W50 oil was just a bit too much to drag moving parts through. :frown:

As far as draining the carb, I wouldn't bother, but I would consider running a bottle of dry gas at least every other fill-up during the freezing weather. (Years ago, my old Mk3 Spitfire with its dual SUs was very susceptible to gas line freeze, and dry gas did the trick.)
 
For battery charging purposes, I would hook up a battery tender. You may actually be draining it depending on the amount of time you give the alternator to work at each start up. Just hook the battery tender up and let it do it's thing.
A good gasoline treatment such as Stabile will keep the gas fresh throughout the winter. If you fill the tank before putting the car into storage, it will reduce the amount of water/condensation getting into the gas.
I like to start mine periodically during the winter months more for inspiration than anything else. But getting the oil circulating every once in a while can't hurt.
The only draining the carb needs is to feed hungry spark plugs.
 
It's actually harder to fire the plug when it's under compression, so while it was sparking while you were looking at it, it may not have been while trying to start the engine.

Like Andy's Herald, pretty much all my engines seem to have a minimum cranking rpm below which they won't start. I don't know if it's lack of voltage to the ignition, or just the fuel/air mixture being too far off to light (due to slow air movement through the venturi) but below a certain speed, they just won't start.

Overall, IMO, it's harder on an engine to be started and idled briefly every few weeks, than to just be properly winterized and stored. Even if you are running it long enough to recharge the battery, the oil still isn't getting hot enough to boil off water and contaminants.

A battery maintainer as Doug suggests would be better, IMO.
 
Keep in mind also that when the starter is heavily loaded, it's pulling a lot of current and dropping the system voltage. All these things make starting difficult in the winter.

My friends in Finland all use block heaters in their cars in the winter. Without them, they'd never get the things started. And these are modern cars with thin oil and all the advantages.
 
Back
Top