John – welcome back to the land of
the running engine. (I’m still waiting to arrive there). Take your time
and be safe!
From: Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
Behalf Of John Slade
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004
6:40 PM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] N96PM makes
noise once again
It's been quiet here lately. Time to liven
things up a bit.
I'm happy to report that my engine is once
again making noise. Well, it was making noise before, but now it's good noise.
I just started the rebuilt engine and
taxied around on the ramp in the dark for 5 minutes or so. It seems to be
running very well. I definitely need to do a bit of tuning, but it's very
smooth and responsive.
I'm not sure if I mentioned this but there
were a number of things wrong, over and above the damaged seal and rotor
housing, any and all of which might help explain some of the problems I've had
since first running the engine over a year ago.
1. The rubber end plugs on the seals were
missing - i.e. never installed.
2. One of the end seals had 30 thou
clearance when it should have been 2 thou
3. (This one is embarrassing). Bruce asked
me if I was running premix. When I said yes, he asked why I'd unplugged the oil
injection holes when I removed the engine. What injector holes?, I asked. Yep.
Believe it or nor, the oil injector ports (next to the primary injector holes)
had been unplugged since day one.
Taxi testing and runups tomorrow.