I have been surprised at the recent
flurry of carb postings. I assumed that everyone was doing
EFI. having experienced total electrical failure in march on a trip
to the Bahamas I was thinking a lot about that Neanderthal carb bolted
under my O320 and the magnetos, all unaware of what was going on in the
radio, GPS, and nav lights departments. the reality
is that you don't want a reserve battery to get you to the ground safely,
you want to get to the Bahamas and back and THEN look into what's
wrong.
my questions are "how much
power/performance is lost with a carb, and which carbs can do manual
mixture?". is it stupid to ask if the Lycoming carb could run a
13B? someone mentioned Harley carbs having a good history
of rough service. what about marvel/schebler? is this question
heresy? :-) isn't efi a bit of overkill for an engine that basically
runs at 100% power, 75% power and idle? scanning thru the archives I
see a lot of postings regarding mixture, mapping, abrupt failures and
such. does this complexity buy us 5%, 20%? the question of
turbo-charging seems to beg similar line of
questioning. kevin
Kevin,
It's probably my fault, with a number
of chaps helping me out with information.
My Buddy Bill Jepson will tell you
nothing beats EFI and when it's running well, he's absolutely
right!
Not only that it is the best for
fuel efficiency, leaning reading fuel flow etc. etc.
However I'm developing a single rotor
and looking at all sorts of issues including cost effectiveness of less
elaborate installations. I'm also not keen on high
pressure
fuel under the
cowl.
Most importantly I'm not an
electronics person and seeing the problems experienced by others has me
more than a little nervous, in regard to EFI.
Of course I know very little about
carbies, so their helping me with this as well.
The Revmaster might be the choice for
me, but I'm awaiting the sticker shock!
George ( down
under)