[Healeys] Cold Cranking Amps

[warthodson at aol.com]

My suggestion is to first determine why your car is "hard to start in the winter". My 3000 sits all winter (in Kansas) without being started. In the spring it starts after cranking for 5-10 seconds. 
I have a trickle charger that I connect to the battery periodically. I measure the battery voltage & if it dips below about 12.5 volts I attach the trickle charger. My battery is an Odyssey PC1200 (CCA = 630). According to Odssey 12.5 volts is 75% charged. 12.84 is 100% charged. These are steady state figures, assuming the battery has not been on the charger for at lease 1 day & has not recently been used to start the car.
When I hear that a car is hard to start in the winter the first thing I would check is the proper operation of the choke. Fuel enrichment not fast idle, depending upon the carbs on your BT7. 
Gary Hodson





-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Spidell <bspidell at comcast.net>
To: healeys <healeys at autox.team.net>
Sent: Thu, May 17, 2018 10:00 am
Subject: Re: [Healeys] Cold Cranking Amps


    
John,
    
Do you use a battery maintainer?  They can help (but AGMs should      have one tuned for them).  Have you had your starter rebuilt?  The      field coils, in particular, can degrade and reduce the starter      output considerably.  Solenoids degrade over time, too.
    
    
It doesn't get that cold where you, and I used to, live; you      shouldn't have that much trouble starting your Healey in the      winter, even if it's sat for a couple months.  Mine would take      10-15 seconds of cranking in the winter after sitting to start, as      opposed to maybe 5 seconds in warmer months.
    
Switching to a lower-viscosity oil, for the winter at least,      might help some too.  I use 20W-50 year-round.  My experience with      the 'boosters'--exactly one--is that they might help a marginal      starter/battery over the top, but will not cold start a completely      dead battery, and least not on a big 6- or 8-cyl engine.
    
    
Bob
    
    
    
On 5/16/2018 10:29 PM, John Spaur      wrote:
    
    
                        
        
So… I never            completely described the issues pertaining to this query.
        
 
        
I have a 3000            BT7 and good 775 CCA battery. My car is hard to start in the            winter, despite being housed in my garage, because I drive            it infrequently. Yes, I know… just drive it more often!
        
 
        
When starting            it in the winter, the battery starts to give out, but not            completely (yet) before starting the car. I suspect it is            due to fuel degradation even though I add Stable to the            petrol. I would like to get a portable jump starter for            extra starting power instead of jumping from my daily            driver. Been checking the list recommendations and some have            a cranking rating but most do not.
        
John
        
 
        
          
            
From: Healeys                [mailto:healeys-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of                simon.lachlan at alexarevel.plus.com
                Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2018 5:20 AM
                To: healeys at autox.team.net
                Subject: Re: [Healeys] Cold Cranking Amps
          
        
        
 
        
The            one thing that noone’s mentioned so far is putting in a            modern starter motor. That won’t clean up the contacts in            the wiring system, but it will certainly make the best use            of your amps.
        
Plainly            not to everyone’s taste. Visually not obtrusive, but audibly            a bit off.
        
Does            create space for a bigger oil filter if you’ve got a            conversion that comes straight off the block…..
        
Simon
      
      
    
    
  
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