Anyone have any opinions/recommendations/warnings/good deals... about mini-starters?

The starter in my '87 TA died tonight and I figure I could find some more room for exhaust (turbo downpipe) with a ministarter.

 

I have a cheap chinese one from ebay for $60.

It's okay so far.

 

Not cheap new but I like my 96 vette mini starter. Find em used..

 

Got the same one direct bolt-in no shims or anything. You can get one on amazon for around $160 shipped iirc

 

That's cheaper than a reman LT1 starter around here. Pretty cool.

 

Hitachi PSL100 tiny little sucker and have had zero problems in 3 different cars.

 

Like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Hitac...582#vi-content

That looks like just the kind of thing I'm looking for (though that's a fairly low HP rating, but I bet with the 6:1 gear ratio it doesn't matter). Do you have a good source for them?

I might even have an LT1 starter on the shelf in the garage, but they're not _that_ small and i'm trying to sneak a 4" downpipe through that side...

Huh, doing a search it appears that there are at least 2 or 3 different psl100 starters and one site that claims that it was replaced with a pgmr starter, which one is the correct one?

 

I've bought 2 of them through the local Napa store. They might have to punch the PSL 100 number into their interchange or look it up in a book. Dunno about the different variations, I've always just asked for the one that fits the GM stuff. Comes in a red box with a 2 lane road wrapped around it and ARP bolts inside lol. It turns my 350 with 10.5:1 compression with the timing locked out at 38 just as quick as a low compression stocker 454.

 

Got myself a Tuff Stuff mini a year ago, no probs since. If you're up for a new starter, I can't see why anyone would replace the huge massive weak neolithic finger-crushingly painful filthy factory pos with another one.

 

LT1 worked great on my 383 at 11:1 compression Its alot smaller than stock, you should beable to fit a 4" pipe down there since hooker longtubes are over 4" in diameter with four 1 3/4" pipes meeting by the starter.

I have a summit ministarter on the 401 and its not any smaller than the LT1