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Starting the Lotus 29 with External Starter and Timing Retard

16:20
30:19
29.1K views

At 16:20 in

Indy 500 Legends Testing Day: Inside Access! Classic Race Winning Cars Back On Track

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What happens here

The 1963 Lotus 29, a rear-engine, naturally aspirated Ford-powered car, is shown. To start it, the engine's timing is first retarded by 20 degrees using a special switch on the dashboard. This setting ensures the engine hits at 30 degrees of advance, which prevents damage to the starter shaft and other engine components during cranking. An external starter is then connected to the rear of the car, and the engine is cranked until it fires up.

Goal: Safely start the Lotus 29 engine using an external starter and proper timing adjustments.

Tools and materials

  • External Drive Shaft — Connecting the starter to the engine
  • External Starter — Cranking and igniting the engine
  • Timing Retard Switch — Adjusting engine timing for start-up (factory feature)
  • Racing Fuel — Fueling the engine

What they say

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lemon poppy this is Mitch saon how you doing man nice to meet you yeah we're going to fire this dumpster up and yeah I want to hear it oh okay are you firing it up like right now the motor is built and designed to be run at 50 52° timing so to get it you don't bre starter shafts and block up starters there's a retarder switch down here on the dash this was this was Factory back in' 63 and what it does is it retards this timing box 20° so when you're actually cranking the motor it's hitting at 30° in advance and as soon as it CR as soon as it hits you let go the and then starts running at 50 50° that's a that's a lot yeah that's a lot that's a lot it's in the manual it's in the man this was in the restoration shop when we were here last time right yes this is the one that wasn't done yet this was high centered there for a long time we had to cut it off the stands and thrown onto what fuel do it run on this is a g race gas okay they did that so they made this car on gas the big thing they wanted was they wanted the uh they wanted to they get better mileage on the gas um you get almost two one on gas to to alcohol fuel on on switch crank

Auto-generated from the video audio.