For those that haven't been following my project's progress (or lack thereof), I replaced my side-port 20B with a p-ported 20b in January of this year. And have been fighting "issues" ever since. The main problem was a persistent misfire at various rpm. That appears to have been solved with a new CAS bracket and setting the gap to .025". The rest seems to be tuning related. I have finally managed to get it to run smoothly through the rpm range needed for safe flight.
So, after a thorough pre-flight, I flew my p-port 3-rotor on Friday. OAT was about 90*F, but coolant stayed below 200 during climb and oil temps were 185*F max, 165-170 in cruise. The p-port engine ran great, except for a little mis-firing around 5700 rpm, which was corrected in flight with auto-tune. Pre-takeoff run-up gave a brief excursion to 6900 rpm. Takeoff run was 6500, running very well, but limited by prop setting. It started to lightly misfire when I dialed the prop back for cruise-climb, so I dialed it back up to 2000 (prop) and it ran smooth again. Once at 3500 and leveled off, I entered auto-tune and brought the rpm down to the 5700 range and let the EM-2 tune the EC-2, map addresses 90 - 92. Afterwards, it ran great throughout the rpm range. (I had "auto-tuned" much of the upper map range on the previous flight.)
At 3500 - 4500 MSL, the EFIS was indicating 172-174 TAS at 1800 rpm prop setting, and 201-203 mph per the EM-2. This is consistent with a previous test run I had recently done and represents a 12-14 knot improvement over the side-port motor. The cool thing is that these speeds are in "economy cruise" mode. EM-2 was indicating 12.1 gph, but has not been calibrated since switching to the larger 60 lb./hr injectors. Engine was just purring along at 5500 rpm. There should be a bit more speed on the table as I realized after the flight that I had never closed the cowl flap. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go fly again real soon to see how she performs with the cowl flap closed.
Later on, I plan to run it a bit harder, around 6500 rpm, and see how she performs. I could hit VNE with the old motor if I ran it up to 6700-6800. But since the vast majority of my flights are in the 5200 - 5500 rpm range the 12-14 kt improvement is very good to see.
Mark