Race Engine Forum UK

I was reading A G Bell's book again recently.

One of his tips was to fit an ignition switch just for the starter motor. Then after oil pressure has built up, use an additional ignition switch to bring the ecu/coil live and allow the car to to be started

Is this a worth while thing todo on my car ? I'm just about to wire in the new ECU/relays, and I already have the fuel pump on a seperate switch (as well as being ecu controlled)

thank you
Sean

This might not be too good if your ECU reads barometric pressure on the first startup to adjust proper fuel correction. Such option has Megasquirt ECU that i have. It reads the pressure in the manifold(or where you connect MAP sensor)- there is an option of using 2 map sensors so that one reads barometric pressure all the time and the other reads MAP.

How long does it take for oil to be passed around the engine when starting normally?
Would significant damage/wear be caused following a normal start up procedure?

My thoughts on this have been that the engine won't have turned over enough to cause any damage or wear by the time there is protection from the flowing oil. Someone on another forum I visit was looking into fitting an auxillary oil pump to flow the oil, pre start up, but again, I couldn't see the benefit to the required amount of work.

I'd be interested to hear some more opinions on this though as its a topic that I've seen come up a few times now.

Ant

If you fit an accumulator for oil with the solenoid switch then it will empty and prime the engine before starting. Although AG Bell's solution is simple and an could be easily achieved.

Rich