Animal Starting Update

Starting the Briggs Animal:

After extensive testing both in the shop and on the track with Briggs and Baker Racing Engines we have come up with some simple fixes for the hard starting issues that some have experienced with both the Jr and Sr Animal engines. We feel this will fix almost all of the issues we saw while starting. We have looked at a large amount of data that was collected at our test session and continue to evaluate all the possible options to remedy any issues.

The current compression release kicks out at approximately 800 RPM. Most people push and or start their engines just past this point. It does not take too much to get past 800 RPM with a 6:1 gearbox.

We tested a modified compression that kicked out at 1600 RPM. This started very good but didn’t want to continue to run without laboring if you didn’t get it moving at a good clip. We then installed a compression release that kicked out at 1200 RPM. This seems to be the ticket. My engine started hard all last weekend and I was about to give up. This totally cleared up all the problems I was having. We tried everything we could to make it kick hard and could not make it happen at all. You could hear it ever so slightly pop but it still had the compression release open so it had no affect on making it hard to start.

Believe it or not it now starts easy like we are use to with the Honda engines.

This fix has no performance advantage at all. You can modify what you have or if you are not having any problems you don’t have to do a thing.

What we are doing is breaking off two tabs on the compression release. A very simple fix that can take as little as ten minutes if you are mechanically inclined.

If you will be attending the USAC .25 Midwest Thunder Championship races this weekend at Toledo bring your engine to the Baker Racing Engines trailer and he will make the modification to your compression release free of charge. If you are unable to attend and have specific questions on this modification please feel free to give Steve a call at Baker Racing Engines 419-217-3881 and he can explain in more detail what to do.

Please share your experiences with all of us if you decide to modify your engine also.

We held two separate races this past weekend in the Sr Animal class using the slides. This went very well and we should have some more details about the slide versus the restrictor plate in the coming weeks.

Eric