Air starter

[fabricator]

Well the 8/1 has a 4 hp air starter now, beats the hell out of cranking, it won't crank against compression though.
The plumbing needs to be a little more elegant but it works for now.

[Ronmar]

Cool!

[Carlb]

Is that a Gast 4am air motor?

[fabricator]

I'm not sure what it is, I got it from a local industrial surplus outfit, he had a skid of em and said they were all 4 hp, if it's not a gast it's almost an exact copy, it's all cast iron, heavy as hell.

[mbryner]

Looks cool.   Too bad it won't push through compression...   Did you need it to or are you going to automate the compression release?

[fabricator]

I think I'm gonna automate the compression release and the fuel lever, sooner or later I'm gonna have a Xantrex 4024 inverter and I want it to be able to start the roid when the batteries drop to a preset level.

[fabricator]

I think I'm gonna try a surge tank next, like a 20-30 gallon tank close to the engine, right now the air in the lines coming from the compressor is the surge volume, maybe if I have a larger volume right next to the motor it may be enough to turn it over without decompressing.

[Carlb]

I don't think it is going to do it.  I put a 4hp air motor on my listeroid  several years ago and I have a 50 gallon main tank plumed to a 30 gallon tank with 1" pipe  very close to the air motor and it still won't get it over compression.

Carl

[fabricator]

Well that experiment was easy............for me

[mike90045]

How about " gearing down " to a smaller wheel on the air motor ?
  I thought some other member was able to 'crank through' compression with his air starter.

[fabricator]

Well, I started with a 5" caster wheel and it pretty much wouldn't even turn it over, I know it can be done because of this on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXc6RgXTKrI He is not decompressing but he has a LOT of stuff in that air system that I have no idea what it is.

[fabricator]

Strike that! I just noticed he is decompressing! I watched that video about six times and never noticed that before.

[mbryner]

That guy sure went whole hog.   He has other youtube videos, one of which even has a genuine Listeroid engineer from Rajkot demonstrating how the air-starter works!   

[vdubnut62]

I think his air start system sorta kinda borders on OCD  If anything ever happens to the guy, no one will ever figure out the plumbing if something should go awry.
Ron

[veggie]

Nice job,

I used the same air motor.
Works great, but the decompression must be used.
Spin it up to speed, swing the decompression lever, and let the flywheels do all the work.

veggie