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The post below is six years old, but still valuable, I think.
I can't get this thing to start. I pull the plugs and they're soaking wet. The trailing (top) plugs much worse than
the leading. I used a small butane torch to burn off the wet stuff. You'd think gas would POOF and burn right off as
soon as the flame came near. This stuff would barely burn at all. Like trying to light wet wood.
I put the plugs back in, and turn it over and over. It acted like it was trying to start once or twice, but would never
catch on and run. Pull the plugs, and they're soaking wet again.
Could 5 month old gasoline really be this bad? At this point, I'm thinking I should just drain the tank and start with
fresh fuel.
The question I have is whether the plugs will need to be replaced, or will they be fine once I have fuel in there that
will actually burn?
On 12/08/2006 07:37 AM, Lehanover@aol.com wrote:
In a message dated 12/7/2006 9:37:29 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, lors01@msn.com writes:
If the MSD coils are plug-in replacements for the stock LS1 coils they will work with the EC2 as-is. Having said
that, I doubt that they would help with flooded engine problems.
I'm running the Renesis coils on my 20B and not having any problems so far. The LS1 coils on my 13B Renesis have
performed well and I have not had a flooded engine problem in the last 9 years.
I changed my plugs to iridium type (stock Renesis parts) about 210 hours ago and they have been wonderful. Never
a hint of 'SAG' but I have run only a few tanks of 100LL during that time.
Proper priming and starting procedures are the keys to easy starting and avoidance of carbon fouling.
Tracy (sending Blue Mountain EFIS back for updates)
Keep saying that to yourself.
Proper priming and starting procedures are key to easy starting and avoidance of carbon fouling.
The Renesis engine does not have the self purging feature of the earlier 13B with the peripheral exhaust ports. So it
can be stopped cold (pun) by an over rich starting attempt. It will reapply liquid fuel to the spark plugs with each
passing apex seal. Mazda had to re burn all of the Proms to help (but not cure) this problem. So there is a mechanical
layout problem involved in the hard starting, that owners of older 13B's and 12As just have never seen or had to deal with.
The early cars had a small container on the firewall that was filled with antifreeze. When temps were cold enough, a
spray of antifreeze would go into the engine during cranking to remove frost that tends to form on the surfaces and lock
the seals into the rotors. This would reduce the compression to zero and make starting impossible. The antifreeze would
also add volume to the chamber to increase effective compression and help seal around the stuck seals.
In carburetted cars just pumping the gas pedal would cure this problem, and the peripheral exhaust port would dump out
the excess fuel and frost as each apex seal went by.
Those engines had a one piece 9MM carbon apex seal, and that seal ran about .004" to.005" of end clearance, so as not
to bind up when it was up to temperature. But that gap and some sloppy end clearance on the side seals assured that
winter starting was a hit or miss project at best.
With the modern 2 piece apex seals this is far less a problem, as the corner piece keeps the apex seal pretty much the
right length (zero end clearance) all of the time,
or it was, until the exhaust port was mounted up into the side of the irons instead of on the peripheral housing where
it should be.
When I first raced (I called it raced, It was just driving around fast) an RX-2 Mazda with a stock junk yard engine
with no compression, it could be started by inserting an extra battery in the starter motor circuit to spin up the
engine extra fast to shorten the leak time, or by push starting the car in first gear to do the same thing.
We used to run a race called the Great Pumpkin up near Akron Ohio and at times there would be snow on the ground. The
starting problem was profound indeed. I poured in a cup of hot coffee and squirted motor oil into the carb before
attempting to start the engine. It drew quite a crowd and better yet, it worked every time. There was a large smoking
problem for a while after startup (Like a big radial) but we got to race, and were very happy.
All of this was with the stock (Lame) points style (Kettering) ignition system. We could get up to 9,000 RPM with
points. Plugs were gapped to .012" because secondary voltage was way down, and misfires were common with bigger gaps.
If you are having trouble starting your rotary, in cold weather, or on cool humid mornings, you are in a big club.
Clean and properly sized conductors in the starting circuit are a must, for the highest possible cranking speed. If the
engine has been overdosed with fuel, shut off the fuel and crank with the throttle full open.
Do not do this from outside the plane.
Do this from inside the plane with feet on the brakes and full up elevator, unless it is on the wrong end, in which
case full down elevator. Tie the tail to a fixed object. Because the engine makes best power at full throttle, and once
it blows out the excess fuel it will start from sort of a dead quiet to a scream and jump those little tiny chocks you
made, and rocket down the flight line into my plane or Tracy's plane.
In any case this works for the Renesis but it takes a good long time because of the exhaust port placement. The fuel
wetted plugs will dry out if you have enough battery. A clean dry set might get you going faster. A few blades with no
fuel at all might get some heat of compression into the cold iron parts before the chilling effect of the fuel mist wets
the plugs.
Do not spray any kind of starting fluids meant to start diesels into a rotary. It is conductive and shorts the plugs
worse than water. WD-40 used to work great. It was an explosive fog and helped sealing as well, but they made it much
safer now and it is nearly useless.
If there is to be a high energy system added to the aircraft engine, I would add it to the trailing plugs only until
the system is proven with many hours of service. You can fail the trailing system and loose very little power.
You will know immediately if you loose the leading system.
But the high energy system would still help with starting and fuel burn, and you would still have two independent systems.
If Tracy's system mimics the Kettering system, it is likely that it could be used to trigger an after market high
energy system with no problem. Otherwise, a transformer or shunt of some kind may be required to prevent damage to his
system. Ask Tracy.
This advice may be worth what its costing you.
Lynn E. Hanover
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