Can't tell you how good it is to hear you are flying (rotaries)
again! I have found that EFI fuel pump life is directly related to how
often they are run dry. If your fuel system requires them to run very long
before it primes, it reduces the life drastically. Laura's old Fiero would
tolerate running out of gas exactly 3 times before needing a new pump.
This test was repeated twice! (Still can't understand how anyone could
gather that kind of data : )
I'd send you a pump today but the new lighter interchangeable fitting pumps
are going like hotcakes and we are out. The supplier is near New Orleans
so resupply may be slow. The old type we sold can be had as an equivalent
at NAPA as part number 2P74028 if you are desperate (I would be:
) This d@#! storm has affected everything....
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2005 10:53
PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Another great flying
day = another day of troubleshooting
After a great trip to Santa Paula I finally solved my "compressor surge"
issue. Turns out that it was SAG (Spark plug induced Attention Getter)
all along. Sigh.. Despite the fact that the plugs were only
a handful of hours old, and they worked fine at MAPs in the N.A. range.
I was convinced that my power drop issue was surge because it seemed directly
related to pressure ratio...
I finally change out the spark plug and wala... no issue. Now i
sort of wish I didn't cut off the waste-gate flapper.... oh well.
But life with an auto conversion seems never without an issue or
two.
Went out to the plane yesterday ready for a flight but found a puddle of
coolant underneath... sigh...
turns out that my lower radiator cap went bad. Easy enough.
Return the next day and install a new one. Give everything a good once
over and discover a broken alternator tension arm!!! Holy S*(^
!! Broken clean through but not displaced very far (hard to
notice). From the looks of it, the thing has been broken for at least 20
flight hours! Hmmm.
So I went home and made a new one - same design until I can come up with
better materials and/or design. Looking at the old one there was the end
of a hacksaw cut right where break occurred. I should have been more
careful grinding it out.
So that is fixed for the time being and I went flying with a friend in an
RV-8 with a 180h.p. and c/s prop. Except for initial acceleration on
ground roll, I could out perform him in climb and cruise even with my f.p .
prop. :-) COOL!!!!
But then I found my next problem....
Return fuel flow started drooping. Where I normally see 30+ gph
returned to the tank, I was seeing about 20gph. We landed for lunch and
I searched for signs of a fuel leak - none. Fuel flow seem normal on the
ground, as did fuel usage for the flight. hmmm.
On the way home the problem recurred, and flow continued to
dwindle. at 4gph I turned on the aux pump and solved the problem.
Sure was nice to have 2 of them.