Hey guys so I have a bit of a Frankenstein vehicle the body is a 83 motor is a 79 basically I'm dumb and bought a 79 starter without checking to see what was on the car first so i pulled it off an it was an 11 tooth for 83 to 85 the one that I purchased was a 79 8 tooth I read a couple threads saying they are interchangeable and the teeth count didn't really matter just looking for more info on it. Wondering if i should just send it back and get an 83-85 11 tooth or if id be okay with the 79 8 tooth i bought
thanks - alex

 

It'll be ok for now but next time get an 11 tooth. They spin the engine a little bit faster and have less angle on the flywheel teeth wearing them less over time.

By the way, an FC NA starter is also compatible but you need an FC long through bolt as it does not thread directly into the starter. It has one more tooth and will crank a slight bit faster. It has planetary gear reduction.

Now if you really want to get super serious, you can get an RX-8 2kW starter and swap its motor into the FC nose. This gives the fastest crank speed you can get before resorting to a 16 or 18V racing battery.

And if you are downright stupid, you can hook up two 12V batteries in series to get 24V and spin your engine ridiculously fast. Hopefully you can isolate the rest of the car so you don't blow out any circuits.