Buy and then fix rental property using primary house HELOC. Can I deduct HELOC interest as expense against rental income?

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Get primary house HELOC on August 2015 and used as down payment to buy rental property on Nov. 2015. HELCO is only used for buy/fix the rental property. Can I deduct HELCO interest against rental income? 

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When you borrow funds, the funds and related interest are traced to activities that utilized the funds  within 30 days of the borrowing. In your case, all your borrowings on the HELOC were used to acquire   rental property. Therefore, the interest paid on the debt could be considered passive activity interest  or alternatively you could treat it as home mortgage interest within the $100,000 limitation or a  combination thereof.

If treated as passive activity debt, the interest is deductible against the rental income produced by the acquired property. The limitation of $100,000 on home equity debt does not apply, as the debt incurred for personal purposes.

You are responsible for following the IRS tracing guidelines.You must have a provable paper trail as to where the money goes and expense the interest against the income producing expenditures.

Allocation of Interest 

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p535/ch04.html#en_US_2016_publink1000243081