Diesel engine starter

How many watts (or kW) of power can a 12 or 24 volt diesel engine starter produce?

Reply to
moreairguns
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I believe the starter for a 2.5l inline 5 cylinder audi diesel is around 3kW.

Reply to
Thomas Tornblom

How much do you want? Any engine starter can produce extreme amounts of power for very short periods. I've seen starters on set up 2 liter motors over range my 1000 amp clamp.

Reply to
Steve Austin

For an tiny Oldsmobile or a huge Paxman marine engine?

Figure the starter for a small truck engine will run around 300 to 400 amps peak for a 12V starter. That's around 5kw peak, maybe 6.5 horsepower. Average current will be slightly less because the load varies.

Why do you ask?

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

Can these starter motors run for long periods of time at low power inputs? I'm just considering these motors for use in a small electric vehicle.

With a motor speed controller, these starter motors won't be running at its maximum capacity.

Reply to
moreairguns

Maybe, but I wouldn't. They don't have bearings designed for continuous duty. If you are careful and watch the winding temperature you might be able to get away with it, though.

Remember these are the cheapest, crappiest motor designs possible. Because the car manufacturers can get away with that. I wouldn't use them for anything I cared about, even if it were intermittent duty.

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

Starter motors typically have no or very poor cooling. They are designed to only run for a few seconds at a time so cooling isn't an issue for them in normal service.

Starter motors also aren't designed to spin for all that long (short service life). The bearings are cheesy at best.

If this is just a fun type project they might work good enough to play with. If that were the case I would pick something popular like a Chevy 350 starter so that you could just go grab new ones at the junkyard when they cook themselves.

Steve B.

Reply to
Steve B.

No. They have very limited heat dissipation capacity- no airflow through the case, no cooling fan, no external finning. They're meant for intermittent use only.

Not a good idea.

But they would still be incapable of dissipating much heat. You need a motor with cooling capability- starter motors are made to be sealed against dirt, grit, and wet and since they're expected to operate for a maximum of 15 seconds at a time, cooling is sacrificed for compactness and being sealed.

Reply to
Steve

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