Obviously, I am in serious need of adult supervision.
That being said, I am trying to address this latest issue in
as philosophical a manner as possible.
As of late, since I got my EC2 back from Tracy, I have had a
serious hot start issue. The engine seemed to run ok once
started and seem to start pretty easily when cold.
A few weeks ago I thought I had an oil pressure again but as
I have stated earlier it seems that I was just low on oil.
Thinking I was going to have to pull then engine I removed my
prop. Out of curiosity I started the engine a few times
keeping the rpm's very low....below about 3000 rpm. The
engine started pretty easily, even when hot, even though it
did surge until I played with the mixture. I replaced the
prop and I have the hot start problem again.
So, I thought I would start with basics again. After doing
the EC2 test modes, I figured I would pull the plugs and have
a look see. The plugs looked as expected (the leading plugs
more blackish, the trailing more brownish, but both pair
matched).
Last time (two times actually) when I had very hard hot start
it was due to coolant leaking into the rotor housings. The
first time due to my ignorance following a build of one engine
from three, not having good sensors and overheating the
engine. The second time due to a brand new center housing
coolant galley wall failing. DOH!
Since I recognized the symptoms, I looked for the same
issues ie green coolant in the rotor housing. There was none
(figured since the plugs looked good). The second time I
could crank the engine as watch coolant shoot across my
wing....not good.
So, this time, no coolant. So, I figured I would check the
apex seals by looking inside the spark plug holes. All three
of the front seals looked good and were nice and springy when
I probed them gently with a screwdriver. So, I moved the
rear housing. Uh, damn. Two of the seals were funky. One
had no real movement. The second one moved around fine but
had NO springiness at all.
Ok, so I am "suspicious" ;-), so I break out the pressure
gage. Checked the front chamber for sake of comparison and it
gave me three nice pulses around 80lbs. Did the same for the
rear and it was inconsistent at 30 to 60 lbs. Got out
some penetrant and sprayed on the seals to no avail. Seems I
have read some tricks for a stuck apex seal, but not for one
that seems to have defective/broken springs.
So, is appears I will be pulling the engine off once again
and replace at least the apex seal springs on the rear
housing. Now, if any of you fine gentlemen and ladies have
some nice little solution that would allow me to not take such
drastic action, I am open to such suggestion. I figured it
will take a few days to get new springs in the mail, so I will
have time to pull the engine and prepare everything. If I
recall correctly, I may not have to "break the seal" to the
front rotor housing at all...or so I hope. I am having to try
to remember what it will take to put the rear housing back on,
such as what parts I will remove that need to be replaced and
not be able to be reused. Money is tight right now, so the
less the better.
I may be the current leader of discovering failure modes in
this allegedly robust engine <sigh> :-) before flight.
Ed, I leave the gliding championship to you. I must admit
that the idea of pulling the engine is not quite as daunting
since I have moved past the proof of concept mode and have got
my flight ready install pretty much set. This makes the
engine removal, and then the re-install much more of a
methodical process than a somewhat overwhelming
dismantling...guess practice makes perfect. <sigh>.
All the best,
Chris