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Message-ID: <52043BF8179B4DA5ABA9BFA67416D58B@wills>
From: "Mike Wills" <rv-4mike@cox.net>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
References: <list-3821963@logan.com>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] Re: Progress Report: Velocity N17010
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2009 09:16:39 -0700
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Thats not funny Ed - thats exactly where I'm at now. Everything is working 
pretty well and I'm walking around on eggshells with fingers and toes 
crossed hoping all the bad stuff is behind me.

One of the frustrating things is looking back over the past year and trying 
to recall out of all of the red herrings I chased, which ones actually made 
a difference. From day one my engine ran great above about 2800 RPM. It was 
the low power settings that gave me trouble. These are the things I changed 
that did make a difference that I recall:
1) Adding a small "capacity" to the MAP sensor inputs. Dave Leonard 
recommended this to me and it helped damp out oscillations.
2) Moving the staging point up. Related to this is very fine tuning of the 
MAP table locations that straddle the staging point to minimize the stumble 
that was occuring as I transitioned from 2 to 4 injectors and back.
3) My engine would not run well at these low power settings with the default 
program. Tracy is correct in that trying to program the EC2 actually made it 
worse. The problem isnt programming the EC2, its programming the EC2 blindly 
without knowing what's in the MAP table. Installing Ed's EFISM solved this 
and was the single best thing I did to get things working well. Too bad I 
procrastinated for 6 months before finally doing it.
4) Reseating the improperly seated B controller in the EC2. This never 
caused the engine to run poorly, but occasionally caused the engine to not 
run at all. Which was not particularly confidence inspiring (and one of the 
reasons that I still dont entirely trust the airplane).
5) Sending my EC-2 back to Tracy for update. Lots of changes and 
improvements occured in the 5 years between when I bought it and when the 
engine first ran.

A couple of things I wasted a lot of time on that did not actually make any 
performance difference:
1) Chasing phantom vacuum leaks. If the engine isnt running correctly your 
MAP/vacuum gauge will likely read incorrectly. Is this the cause of the 
problem or just a symptom? I spent a lot of time looking for the vacuum leak 
that the gauge appeared to indicate, but it didnt exist.
2) Chasing electrical noise. I spent a lot of time chasing what in hindsight 
appears to have been a non-existant problem. I made a couple of wiring 
changes that simplified my installation a little but had no detectable 
effect on performance.
3) EC2 tuning blindly relying on a MAP gauge, EGTs, and O2 sensor. See #3 
above.

Off to the airport to fly and see if my landing gear shimmy is cured after 
installing gear leg stiffeners.

Mike Wills
RV-4 N144MW

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ed Anderson" <eanderson@carolina.rr.com>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Sunday, August 23, 2009 6:03 AM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Progress Report: Velocity N17010


> Well, Chris, the rotary deities apparently decided you have suffered long
> enough.  Congratulations, I know the feeling - almost like - well, Magic.
> Then there is the anxiety waiting for the other shoe to drop {:>) - just
> kidding.
>
> Sounds like you should just start the engine once a day to keep the
> motivation high.
>
> Congratulations for hanging in there
>
> Ed
>
> Ed Anderson
>
> Rv-6A N494BW Rotary Powered
>
> Matthews, NC
>
> eanderson@carolina.rr.com
>
> http://www.andersonee.com
>
> http://www.dmack.net/mazda/index.html
>
> http://www.flyrotary.com/
>
> http://members.cox.net/rogersda/rotary/configs.htm#N494BW
>
> http://www.rotaryaviation.com/Rotorhead%20Truth.htm
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
> Behalf Of Christopher Barber
> Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2009 8:58 PM
> To: Rotary motors in aircraft
> Subject: [FlyRotary] Progress Report: Velocity N17010
>
> Tracy et al,
>
> WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME!!!!   I am not quite sure how to act. In the
> last chapter of the continuing saga I informed all of the broken ground
> wire to my ECU.  How I had to send the unit back and how I not only
> scrambled the brains of the EC2 but also of the EM2.  While you had it I
> received the fuel pumps from RWS that had been back ordered to replace
> the noisy MGS(?)  pumps with push on hose connections <yikes>.  I
> installed the new pumps and much better plumbing to them a couple of
> weeks ago while waiting for the electronics to return.
>
> Well, I got my electronics back and installed them all back in the plane
> day before yesterday......NOW, here is the scary part.  I turned on
> everything, placed the mixture in the middle, gave two shots of primer,
> hit the start switch......AND IT STARTED.....IN LESS THAN ONE
> BLADE.....kinda like, uh, well...a car engine <g>.  No hesitation. Fired
> up and ran strong, clean and consistent through all power settings.  Who
> would of thunk it??????  Again,I am not quite sure how to act. I may
> have to start working on other parts of the airplane and support
> systems..  Did ya put some voodoo magic in the boxes this time?
>
> Also, the new pumps are significantly more quite....just an added perk.
> OAT today was 100 + and my temps stayed good.  I added two four inch
> fans under my oil cooler  to pull air through which is helping keep the
> oil temps lower longer.  The coolant temp has not been an issue at lower
> power settings since I installed the larger radiator/heat exchanger.
> Oil is still running over coolant but I can let the engine sit on the
> ramp (where an electronic thermostat sitting on the strake read 132
> degrees) at a moderate idle all day long and not worry about it.
>
> Oh, yes, I rewired the ground wire that broke and am confidant (ok,
> confidant with fingers crossed) with the current install.
>
> Go figure.
>
> All the best,
>
> Chris Barber
> Houston
>
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