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Paul,
Congratulations on a successful first run. I ran mine for the first time
back in November, and I remember what a thrill it was to see it spring to
life. I have a turbo on mine, which helps to quiet it, but it was still
pretty loud. I ran my engine several times, did some tuning on the
controller (Tracy's EC2), and even taxied the plane around some. What a
thrill
I've been working on finishing, so the engine hasn't been run for a couple
of months, but I hope to have it outside again pretty soon for some more
test runs.
Steve Brooks
Cozy MKIV - 13BT
CH 25 - finishing (almost ready for primer)
-----Original Message-----
From: Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
Behalf Of sqpilot@earthlink
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2004 12:38 AM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] It Runs !!!
Well, I got my 13b running tonight. I initially just shot a little starting
fluid into the throttlebody, and it started after about 2 revolutions and
ran just long enough to use up the starting fluid in the intake.
Then I hooked up the wire to my fuel pump and took the 3/8" ID hose I
bought from a marine supply house that has a squeeze type fuel bulb to
provide initial fuel flow, and stuck that into a small 2 1/2 gallon plastic
fuel can with added two-stroke oil. The engine immediately began firing,
but would only keep running as long as the starter button was depressed.
The throttlebody was in the closed position. Then, I noticed fuel dripping
out of one of the intake holes in my TWM throttlebody. I opened the
throttle a small amount, and the engine came to life immediately. Got the
bejeebers scared out of me and shut it down quick. When I realized
everything was fine, I started it again, a little less nervous this time,
and without the white-knuckled grip on the fire extinguisher. Ran it for
maybe 30 seconds and shut it off to inspect for oil , fuel and/or coolant
leaks. I still had fuel leaking from just one of the two intake holes in
the TWM throttlebody. I then disconnected and swapped the wires to the two
injectors, and re-started. After this, the OTHER intake hole in the TWM
throttlebody was leaking fuel. I think this eliminated the injector as the
culprit. Possibly the wiring to one of the injector snap-on plugs is
faulty? I should mention that I have a MicroTech ECU.
The good news is that the engine started so easily. A little smoke at
first from the WD-40 I had sprayed into the exhaust ports to keep the seals
lubricated, but that cleared out after the first short run. Also good news
is that so far, no oil or coolant leaks. However, I'm sure the thermostat
did not have enought time to open, so I can't say there won't be any coolant
leaks lurking in the woods somewhere.
I was very pleased that the exhaust wasn't as loud as I had
expected....It was inside the garage (read that as echo chamber), but
sounded about as loud as a Lycoming. Of course I didn't run it very fast.
Maybe 1500 to 2000 RPM's. For those who are not familiar with my exhaust,
it is just the stock cast iron manifold with a short 10 inch straight pipe.
I will have to try to figure out what to do next to determine why one
throttlebody intake leaks fuel (after shut-down), and why it changes to the
other hole when I switch injector leads. Gotta sleep on it. Fortunately, I
will sleep well tonight, just knowing I can now make noise and scare my
neighbors.
Paul Conner, 13b powered SQ2000. yeah....really powered. Engine is no
longer just an ornament.
>> Homepage: http://www.flyrotary.com/
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