| Bill,
Yes, today was a perfect day to fly in Central Texas, mild temps, practically zero wind, and severe clear. Since I needed fuel, I decided to fly down to my favorite fuel stop, Halletsville, TX (3T5) to gas up. It is about 45 miles SE from Lockhart. I had about 12 gallons in each tank, so it was time to re-fuel. Well, I flew over and landed at 3T5, taxi up to the pump, and guess what.... the pumps were out of order. @$#%&%$ OK, now I have about 19 gallons and need to find some fuel. So, I head over to Fayette Regional (34R) (our favorite BBQ spot) about 30 miles due north. It wasn't the closest airport, but I know that they have fuel there, and their pumps work! I flew up to 34R and landed with about 15 gallons left in the two tanks, not too risky, but the least amount of fuel I've ever flown with to date. Well, the pumps at 34R were working and I pumped in 75 gallons and added over 2 qts of 2-stroke oil. After almost maxing out my credit card, I taxied out, did a run-up, rolled out onto the active, and flew back to my home base, Lockhart. So, all I accomplished was filling the tanks and burning 15 gallons of 100LL, but had a great time doing it. It was kind of like going for a $100 hamburger, except without the burger.
The p-port 20b ran flawlessly. Oil and coolant temps were below 160*F the whole way. Engine didn't miss a beat while cruising along at 197mph (per EM-2) @ 5100rpm (M/T prop dialed down to full coarse). I must say, the new LS2 coils sure appear to have cured the occasional intermittent mis-fire problem. The engine just hummed along as sweet as pie. As they say, life doesn't get any better than this. You guys/gals that haven't yet flown, don't dismay, your time is coming.
Mark S. Lancair ES, N/A P-Port 20B Lockhart, Tx On Sun, Mar 6, 2011 at 6:21 PM, Bill Bradburry <bbradburry@bellsouth.net> wrote:
Did you fly! We need a report!
Bill B
From: Rotary motors in aircraft
[mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
Behalf Of Mark Steitle
Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2011 9:03
AM
To: Rotary
motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Miss
above staging point.
Bill,
Maybe Lynn
can comment on this, but personally I don't sandblast plugs. My
suggestion is to replace the plugs with new ones. Most of my mis-fire
problems have been cured by either tuning or new spark plugs.
P.S. Its a beautiful Spring day in Austin and I'm heading to the airport (will
fly, assuming everything checks out).
On Sun, Mar 6, 2011 at 7:14 AM, Bill Bradburry <bbradburry@bellsouth.net> wrote:
Mark,
The car the engine came from had about 1400 miles on it. I
have run about 40 gallons of gas thru it. I will have to check the coils
for darkening. Also same for plug wires. I am using the stock
Renesis plugs. I might try cleaning them.
On a previous occasion, I flooded the engine and it would not start
till I sand blasted the plugs. After that it started normally.
This problem just happened on the second takeoff. The engine
was running smoothly at all rpms till I made the second takeoff. It
started to miss and pop and the rpm would only go to about 6300. after I
got in the air, I dialed the prop back and the rpm was around 6000 and the
engine smoothed out again and was ok the rest of the flight. Now it is
missing on the ground above the staging point. I have mine set at 16
inches.
I watched the mixture and it seems fine on both sides of the
staging point and also on up in the higher rpms. The only difference is
that the engine starts to miss.erratically. I didn’t notice the EGT as Tracy suggested. I
need to switch to the page that shows the temp of both of them and check that
today.
Bill
From: Rotary motors in aircraft
[mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net]
On Behalf Of Mark Steitle
Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2011
9:50 PM
To: Rotary
motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Miss
above staging point.
Bill,
How do the coils
look (underneath)? Are there dark areas in the potting material where
they have gotten hot? There is a history of coil failures in the RX-8's
after about 30k miles.
How many hours on
the plugs/wires? How do they look?
Mark
On Sat, Mar 5,
2011 at 8:36 PM, Bill Bradburry <bbradburry@bellsouth.net> wrote:
Mark,
I have the stock Renesis coils.
Bill B
From: Rotary motors in aircraft
[mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net]
On Behalf Of Mark Steitle
Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2011
6:19 PM
To: Rotary
motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Miss
above staging point.
Bill,
Which coils are
you running? I chased an intermittent miss which occurred in the 6000
-7000 range. I upgraded to the LS2 "Yukon" coils and the miss was gone.
Mark S.
On Sat, Mar 5,
2011 at 4:56 PM, Bill Bradburry <bbradburry@bellsouth.net> wrote:
I have developed a miss above the staging point. The fuel
pressure seems ok, the mixture also seems ok. I am at a loss.
To try and troubleshoot, I am considering getting above the staging
point and disabling the primaries and secondaries to see if I can identify
which is the cause. Since it runs ok below the stage, I assume it is not
the primaries.
I recently changed my fuel filters and installed a large canister
filter. There seems a possibility that I introduced some
contamination that clogged an injector. Other wise it seems it must be
spark related. This just happened one flight ago. The engine was
running fine, till that last takeoff. It was missing and would only get
about 6300 rpm. After take off, I turned the prop back and slowed the
engine down to below that number and it smoothed out and ran fine the res of
the flight. Today while taxiing around, I noticed that the miss was back.
Opinions welcomed.
Bill B
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