I went out to the airport this afternoon to try to add some flywheel weight to the single rotor.  Installed longer AN-7 bolts, each with an additional 4 larger washers, and 5 small washers.  This added about 26 ounces to the flexplate, at the 4 dampener bolt locations.

Unfortunately, it didn’t change a thing wrt the vibration issues, or prop oscillation.  Still shaky around 1000 rpm, severe drive rattle around 1900-2000 rpm (can't bear to try to find the exact range),  and severe vibration from 2500-3100.  From 3300 to 5000 it's pretty smooth, but with the scary prop oscillation getting worse and worse as the rpm increases. 

Not sure what to try next.  I do have a two blade IVO prop that I could try in place of the 3 blade Warp Drive, but I’d have to cut the blades down from 72” to 68” to clear the fuselage tube.  The torque reversals might not be the best thing for an IVO prop either.  I’m starting to fear that someone’s going to get a deal on an RD-1C drive while I look for another solution, and build an RV-8. 

I’m still finding that I don’t have enough fuel at anything above idle.  I was actually having to run the cold start, and mixture above 12:00 to have a mid range O2 reading at 3000-4000 rpm.  I set mode 3 today, and kept raising the fuel until I got a mid range reading with the mixture at 12:00, and no cold start engaged.  This took 24 clicks!!!  Something just ain't right here... 

Before I started today, I checked the fuel pressure using a mighty-vac pump to simulate changes to the MAP line.  The regulator changed pressure just like it’s supposed to.

I made myself a note to check the fuel pressure calibration again the next time I go to the hanger.  I set this using a different sensor, that I believed to be the same as the one that’s installed on the regulator.  That should have gotten me very close, unless I accidentally used a sensor that was different (30 psi rather than 80 psi for example).  Once I had the fuel pressure “calibrated” on the EM-2, I used that reading to set the adjustable regulator for 42 psi.  Maybe my pressure "reads" 42 psi, but is really way low, like 15 psi or so.

If the fuel pressure is correct, I’ll have to look into the injectors themselves.  They’re 400 cc/min MSD injectors, just like what was on the RV-3.  These were ordered just for this, and never used on anything else, so maybe I was sent something smaller than 400 cc/min.  Worst case, I have a pair of 525’s that I can install if needed.  

Ah, the fun begins.  Pity I don't have time to fiddle with this much now. The QB RV-8 will be here soon.  

Cheers,

Rusty (the weather geek)

PS-  The following link is the weather station in my back yard.  The wind gust readings don't seem to be reporting correctly by the Weather Underground software, but otherwise, it's pretty cool.  My hope is that we'll never get another hurricane, now that I'm set up to record the wind conditions. 

http://www.weatherunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KFLNAVAR7