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.