I have a 512 with very high cylinder pressure, and yesterday I broke my 2:nd ministarter (common type, low cost, probably Chinese).
I'm now in the hunt for a real heavy duty unit, price is less important if it can reliably do the job. What starters do you think I should have a closer look at?

I'm using Nippondenso starters. I had a cheapo Chinese knock off of the same starter. It was a turd. Nippondenso has been bullet proof for years.

spin the motor over before you hit the ignition and have your dist set up properly not locked out. both will help

i had i junk yard mini on a 14-1 engine for years but i did have a 16 v system.when i went back to twelve vlts .i had to eliminate my crank trigger and go back to a properly curved dist to avoid a HUGE drag and kickback senario.im no expert but thats what i ended up with and never had a prob.

I've had the same problem. 1st time out this year my starter was failing put on my backup it was worse then the bad one.
Borrowed a starter from a fellow racer it worked 1 rd but once it got warm it was done. Took all my mini starters over to an auto electrical re-builder he said the Chinese ones have 20% less winding he also said the mini starters you can buy are meet for a 3.8 liter motor the older ones have 4 bolts holding on the case cap for the solenoid the motor is a 1" longer those would do the job.
I just got tired of replacing starters 3 each year and would rather go rounds then changing stater so I bought a Power-master Ultra Torque Starter p/n 9413 it turns over my 15-1 compression ratio 540 like a worn out 4 cylinder it starts so quickly I'd highly recommend them.

A lot of the mini starters hit the block on the starter opening. Its not enough to notice but its enough to break the starter because of the miss alignment. Try sliding some thick paper (Magazine cover works good)between the starter and the block. If it does not go thru, grind the block where its hitting and try again. Do this till you have clearance. As many starters you have broken, it will probably have a witness mark where its hitting.

I agree there has to be an issue. Mine has had the same starter going on 4 years. 15-1, 34 degrees locked out. It's cranked with the ignition on. I even broke a ring gear and the starter is still fine.
Doug

the mopar mini starters have a 9/16"+ top bolt hole. sleeve the hole down for a 7/16" bolt/stud and that will prevent the starter from kicking over and breaking the snout off.

On my BB stuff it hit the block on both a stock
block and my mega block.. I also had to take off
the plastic part on top of the starter.... no
problems on my SB stuff.. I have 2 or 3 of those
starters and they have been on my junk for 15 years
on the one starter

Dakota truck starter...........

Thanks for all the good inputs.

I broke the snout off of the first mini-starter, and actually suspected a misalignent. That's why I bought a second unit and I grinded the snout to avoid any tension building up when bolting the starter to the block. Now this 2:nd doesn't seem to have broken the snout off, it spins but it doesn't engage the gears anymore. I suspect the starter shaft may be slightly bent or similar. It anyway hasn't sounded healthy for the last few days so I guess it's ready for the thrash can.

I broke this second unit having the engine management set up for 3 crank revolutions before activating ignition. I will increase this to 6. Cranking ignition was set at -1 degree ATDC. What I also will do is to decrease the dwell time from 4 ms to 3 ms, to try to minimize any risk of premature firing in the coils.

My static compression is 12.4, which shouldn't be a problem.
I however have a mild cam allowing for the power brakes to work in town, and this means I have a fairly high cylinder pressure. The dynamic compression is approx 9.2

Thanks again, sounds like a Powermaster is the way to go?

I sell starters for a living. 1st one sounds like some thing was misaligned somehow or it kicked back, 2nd one sounds like a bad bendix/drive/clutch. There are many factories in China that make those, believe it or not more than 100 maybe over 200. (of a list of over 300 starter factories over there) and many wouldn't be an issue. I've had the same China one on 4 different motors. If you really want the best buy the real Denso (Nippondenso) If you break that you have something seriously messed up

Thanks 590, looks like I'm hunting Nippondensos at the moment.

I will try to get a spare unit as well to try to avoid getting stranded somewhere.

I ordered a brand new Dodge Dakota 90´s starter, which I thought would be a quality starter...
To my disappointment it was exactly the same no-name as those 2 starters I've already broken. The only difference was the 50% price adder at the Mopar/GM dealer.

I'm now looking at 2 Powermaster models:
- The 9523 XS Torque which has a billet, replacable nose cone
- The 9413 Ultra Torque without a nose cone

Do I need a nose cone or shall go for the more powerful Ultra Torque w/o a nose cone?

Comments appreciated.

Over the years I cut most of the nose cones off my starters so I could change them out quickly between all of our cars. Recently when I went from a powerglide adaptor plate to a JW ultra glide case I had to buy a new starter because the nose cone was needed to locate the starter. There was way to much slop in the mounting holes. Now I will either change out a nose cone or buy another spare to have in my car trailer