OK, I got the leaking water pump cartridge changed out (had a spare), and about two dozen other little items handled this weekend. One thing that I discovered was that the paint on the belly of the fuse was starting to bubble from the exhaust heat being directed too close to the belly. So, I added a short turn-down to the tailpipe. But that required the exhaust system be removed from the a/c, welded, and then reinstalled. The heat is now directed at the pavement (what's that smell... boiling tar?).
Anyway, I finally got everything back together, did another run only to discover a very low EGT. I installed a new injector (had a spare) and the EGT's were much closer. So, having a hangar queen for 3-1/2 months, I buttoned her up and went flying. Keep in mind that tuning is less than perfect, but all in all, it ran very well. It is a new engine, so I babied it the whole way. Oil temps got to 205, water 175, OAT was 78F. In level flight oil was 175, water 157. I may need a water spray bar on the oil cooler for temp control during climbout on hot days, more testing is needed. I'll be watching this very closely.
My initial impressions were:
1) its great to be back in the air again,
2) engine starts about the same as the side port motor did,
3) the exhaust is noticeably quieter due to the tangential muffler and the not-turbo exhaust splitters. The exhaust tone no longer has a deep rumble that began at the time I installed the DNA muffler. The absence of deep tones is less annoying and makes it easier for the ANR to cancel out the remainder of the noise. I can actually hear the radio now. I'll take some db readings in the near future.
4) EFI needs more tuning, but mixtures were easily adjusted by small tweaks on the mixture knob. Did I mention that I installed a wideband O2 sensor and gauge? Having a digital reference makes it much easier to tell exactly where the mixture is at. I will invoke "auto-tune" on the next flight,
5) oil cooling may need some improvement.
6) MSD ignition performed flawlessly. I examined the plugs after the 30 minute flight and they all looked perfectly normal. For the record, I'm running Renesis iridium plugs with three MSD-6A's, three MSD Blaster coils for the leading plugs. I kept the EC-2 for the fuel injectors and to power the trailing coils/plugs.
That's about all for now. Hope to fly again next weekend. Stay tuned...
Mark S.
Austin
On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 6:52 PM, Kelly Troyer
<keltro@att.net> wrote:
Mark,
"Pictures,,,,Pictures" From the "Steitle Skunk Works" !!.............When you have time of course................
--
Kelly Troyer
"Dyke Delta"_13B ROTARY Engine
"RWS"_RD1C/EC2/EM2
"Mistral"_Backplate/Oil Manifold
-------------- Original message from Mark Steitle <msteitle@gmail.com>: --------------
Sorry Bill, it was IFR all weekend and I didn't get to fly. Then I was checking things on Saturday and noticed my water pump dripping coolant from the seal. So, I've decided to go ahead and install a Renesis water pump. I had purchased a Renesis wp and front cover about a year ago with the intent of changing over. Since the Renesis wp is integral with the front cover, I had to band saw the wp housing from the front cover. I will be using it and the Renesis wp cartridge and discarding the rest. I will also have to use the Renesis front hub in order to get the pulleys to line up. This has required some minor machine work to the Renesis hub as it is different from the 20B hub. (That's why I was asking for the dimensions for the CAS trigger wheel.) All of this will save about 7.5#.
As for my impressions of the p-port motor, so far I'm very happy with it. Idle is acceptable and power is noticably increased over the side port motor. The intake is much lighter and simpler to fabricate (except for machining the housings which you could farm out). Everything else connects with hose clamps.
Mark S.
On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 3:00 PM, Bill Bradburry
<bbradburry@bellsouth.net> wrote:
Mark,
Speaking of a two hour drive….did you get in the air this weekend??
Report on the PPort!!
Bill B
From: Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of Mark Steitle
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2010 2:54 PM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] Renesis CAS Trigger Wheel Dims
Does anyone happen to know the thickness of the Renesis crank trigger wheel? This is the toothed wheel that triggers the ignition & injectors. I need to know the exact thickness of the timing wheel. If anyone can send me this dimension I would be very appreciative as it would save me a two hour drive.