Why engine must not be cranked by an electric starter for prolong periods?

Question

Why engine must not be cranked by an electric starter for prolong periods?

Answer 1

Because the starter will GET TOO HOT and could be damaged. There is 100's of amps going into it. At first there is a surge and it can be as much as 200-300 amps or more (depends on size of engine and starter).

Bottom line you don't want to crank more than 5 seconds (or 2 or 3 two second cranks) with out a cooling off of about 30 seconds. If you do say (4) 5-seconds in a row you need to let the starter cool for about 10 minutes. There is also a starter solenoid (a coil that pulls a plunger to engage the starter). It also can draw several amps and gets hot.

This use and cool period is call duty time. If your manual does not give you duty time just use common sense and consider cooling times if you have to crank extended periods.

Of course if the car does not start right way you have an issue. However is say you starve the engine for fuel, aka run out of gas, it might take extra "cranking" to get the engine to fire. Again crank, cool, crank cool. However after a few tries give it a break for many minutes. Personally I don't crank more than 3 seconds at most.

Getting the starter red hot will melt internal insulation and cause an early failure.

Answer 2

starter is good for a few seconds not minutes so the longer you try to start the hotter it gets its under a load

Answer 3

The starter is not designed for any kind of heat removal.  It'll get hot.

Answer 4

it is not good to crank the starter for along time cause the starter will get very hot and it will damage ...