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