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From: "Perry Mick" <pjmick@mail.viclink.com>
To: flyrotary@lancaironline.net
Subject: TCP Doesn't Work?
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 10:34:57 -0700
Message-Id: <20060117171444.M19872@mail.viclink.com>
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>Hi Perry,
 
>Disappointed to hear that TCP did not work.  May I ask "in what regard?".   
>Did the O2 sensor degrade? - SAG occur?
 
>I purchased this  product (Decalin) appears to function similar to TCP and 
>I noticed they say to clean the O2 sensor every 20 hours as well.  I have 
>not tried it yet, but intend to in the near future.
 
>Ed A

I'm running the stock Mazda ECU still. It runs the engine rich best-power 
all the time, automatically compensating for altitude. This is open-loop 
mode not using the O2 sensor. It only uses the O2 sensor below 3000 RPM, 
which means it's only using it while I'm taxiing or on final approach. In 
fact the wire to my O2 sensor is broken, doesn't matter, I'm not using it, 
and it has no effect on engine operation even at idle RPM. The ECU will 
still run the engine without it.

The problem with 100LL is it fouls the leading spark plugs after about 4 
hours. The symptoms are exactly like SAG, just after takeoff with the 
corrupted plugs, there is a power loss and the engine is running only on the 
trailing plugs. When it first occurs, I can throttle back a little for a 
minute or so, then throttle back up and it clears. As the plugs get more 
corrupted this will no longer work and the plugs need to be removed and 
cleaned.

So on my long trip to Kansas last summer I was able to burn mogas all the 
way to Kansas and on the return until I got to Logan Utah. I had some 
Decalin TCP with me to try because the fouling problem is well known to me 
and I avoid 100LL like the plague. I was west of the Rocky Mountains so I 
had many more options to land on the way back to Oregon, so I put in 100LL 
and TCP since I had no contacts in the area to help obtain mogas. I didn't 
have quite enough fuel to get all the way home to McMinnville OR so I had to 
stop in The Dalles to add a few more gallons of 100LL. By this time I had 
been burning 100LL for about 4 hours. Sure enough, as soon as I took off 
from The Dalles, big power loss. I circled the airport in the pattern 
throttled back until it cleared, then climbed out to the west over the 
Columbia river, everything fine from there to MMV. But I took the plugs out 
and cleaned them before my next flight and tried to dilute the remaing 100LL 
in the tanks with as much mogas as possible. At least in my situation the 
TCP did nothing.

I've built a circuit to intercept and manipulate the airflow sensor signal 
to the ECU, for rich/lean control. It is installed in my RX-7 and works, 
eventually I will transplant it to the Long-EZ. Also considering a MSD 
system. 

Perry