Greetings,

Well, the log below pretty much says it all. 

Decisions, decisions...

Rusty

9-13-03  1 hour  / 2.0 hours total

Made 2 flights today.  On the first, I noticed that it take some work to get the oil temp up to 130 before takeoff.  I guess this was my first sign that the new cooler was working.  The second sign was during climb.  The oil and water both stayed right at 180 degrees during climb and cruise.  During descent and landing, I noticed that the oil drops pretty quickly to 130, which I can live with.  The RPM at 30 inches MAP, and 100 mph in climb was 5400.  This is really pretty much perfect, and I know that it will go to 6300 with 36 inches of MAP.  Sadly, the climb performance just isn’t there.  I tried everything from 90 to 110 in climb.  If I try to get to 120, I’m basically flying level and not climbing at all.  Best climb was probably around 95 mph, which is just way lower than it should be, and the rate was only about 1000 fpm at best.  Once I leveled out, I ran at 30 inches of pressure, and 6000 rpm, with only a 130 mph speed to show for it.  This is horrible!  Finished the flight with a bouncy attempt at a wheel landing.  At least they were gentle bounces, so it’s an improvement. 

Out of desperation, I set the prop back to 14 degrees (it was on 12).  I couldn’t rationalize how this would help, but it was worth a try.  I also disabled the relief valve, to see how much boost I could get at altitude.  Well, this climb was even more dismal than before, with an rpm of 4900 at 100 mph.  Best climb rate was still in the 95 mph range.  I only managed to get up to 4000 ft, because it was just taking too long, and there were some clouds around to complicate things.  At 4000 ft, I advanced the throttle to see how much boost I would get.  Knowing that I have run 3 psi on the ground, I should be able to run 5 psi at 4000 feet, and have the same MAP.  The boost is very smoothly controllable with throttle, which is the good news, but I got to 5 psi quite a bit before I got to full throttle.  I stopped there, so as not to tread new engine territory in flight, but I’d estimate that I would have gotten another couple psi out of it, for a total of 7.  This is with the wastegate fully open.  I need a bigger wastegate, or some exhaust restriction.  During descent from 4000 ft, I noticed that the plane just doesn’t want to go over 130 mph, even downhill.  I was descending at 2000 fpm, with 20 inches MAP, and still only 130 mph.  This sure ain’t how the RV-8 worked. The one really good thing was that my landing was beautiful?  A real squeaker!!!