I did see
intermittent spark on the D581 coils as they were going bad so that's a
real possibility with your symptoms. But could be fouled plugs too.
Which coils are you using? I still have 3 of this type on my engine but
they have a cooling plenum over them. The WILL fail without cooling
as I verified 3 times. Never seen a D580 go bad but never say
never.
Looking at
the pictures in the EC-2 manual, I appear to have the D580’s. My coils are mounted in a rather cool
spot (if there is one) in the cowling.
The are mounted below the intake plenum, right next to the plugs. Maybe 6” from the side of the engine. I also put new plugs in it when I had starting
issues. Didn’t help, but still
look pretty new, so probably not fouled.
The weird thing
is that I see the same missing spark pattern on both coils of the rear rotor. (Rear rotor on my installation, which
would be front rotor for you) I
doubt that two coils would fail with the same symptom at the same time.
BTW, did you
ever do the coil test function while on controller B? (it only operates
on B)
I didn’t
know that piece of information. I’m
certain that I only tried it on controller A.
Unless you
are having really cold weather, I suggest not using the cold start
switch if you have the primer function (which you do). I get the best
results by turning the mixture control full rich and giving it as many primer
shots as the OAT calls for. This is something that has to be determined
by trial on each installation because they vary so much. When it fires
off I start turning the mixture control down as it warms up. The
rotary is about the fussiest engine in the world on starting fuel requirements
but once you get it right they start immediately. Get it wrong and you
are in for long term frustration.
Good
advice. This engine has (up to
now) always been pretty easy to start.
It has been hardest to start when the engine is hot, and particularly if
it is also summer time. I’m not sure why it has suddenly decided
to be problematic.
Steve
Tracy
On Dec 2, 2007
6:58 PM, Steve Brooks <cozy4pilot@gmail.com>
wrote:
I spent about
4 hours today, at the airport, trying to fin a solution to my
engine hard starting issue.
I went there with two fully charged batteries. I verified power leaving
the
breakers to the coils and the injectors. I also replaced three of the
slide
on connectors, because they seemed a little looser fitting than most of the
others. I also verified that the cold start lead was not grounded.
Measuring it with an ohm meter at the EC-2 connector, I could see the
transition of the switch. It changed from sever thousand ohms off, to
less
than one ohm with the cold start switch on.
Came time to crank the engine, and I had the same issue. It wouldn't start.
I did, however, only have the fuel pump on for a few seconds, because I
assumed that I was going to flood the engine. After it failed to start, I
pulled one of the spark plugs. The plug was dry. Seeing that it wasn't
flooded, I decided to verify ignition on each coil. I pulled one plug on
e
each rotor, and hooked up a spark plug to each of the 2 leads. Cranking
the
engine (which spins really well with 2 spark plugs removed) I had good spark
on the front rotor, but the rear rotor plug seemed to spark a couple of
times initially, but then did not spark on several engine revolutions.
Repeated the test for the other two coils, with the same result.
Even though the spark seemed to be not up to snuff, I decided to try to
start the engine again. After replacing the plugs, I hit the primer 3
times, and cranked the engine. It fired up after a few revolutions, but
was
only running on one rotor. I turned the cold start switch off, and the
other rotor fired up as well. I ran the engine at about 2800 RPM's for
several minutes. I tried both A and B controllers. Each seemed to
run
about the same. Since I had adjusted the mixture the last time, I retuned
the A controller at several MAP locations to get the desired mixture.
Running it at higher per levels, however caused the mixture to bottom out at
about 30 MAP. I didn't try a higher power level, since I was still
sitting
close to other aircraft, and still tied down.
At this point, I decided to take Ed's suggestion and verify power to the
injectors. To do this, I had to unbolt the fuel rail, and slide it out
with
the injectors to get to the connectors. I removed the retaining clip (RC
Engineering injectors) and verified that I do indeed have power to all four
injectors. I also verified using the second battery, that I get a click
on
each injector, when applying power. Unfortunately, while re assembling
the
fuel rail, I have an seal leaking when I turn on the fuel pump. I had to
order some new seals, and that ended the testing for today.
My next steps at this point, are to get the seals and fix the fuel leak.
And also find my fuel pressure gauge and hook it up, so I can see what the
fuel pressure is doing.
The only thing I'm confused about is the intermittent spark on the rear
rotor that I observed, yet once it started, it ran fairly well up to 30 MAP.
Steve Brooks
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