5/2/2007
See the first start video!
I took a vacation day today and I was lucky that Christine was able to join me at the hangar. The morning was spend wiring the P-leads off of the magnetos (at the started switch) to the tachometer inputs to the EMS via resistors. I also hooked up the fuel level senders and fixed a short in the COM1 coax. The I installed the floors.
This afternoon I ran through pre-start checks on the engine. I removed the spark plugs and with the lower ones hooked up. I observed each spark in the correct firing order. Since both mags have impulse couplings I was able to observe all fire at their respective TDCs. This was an admittedly crude verification of the timing.
I ran the fuel pump with the line disconnected from the servo. The EMS reported 47 GPH. I flushed the lines from both tanks. I then hooked up the line at the servo and re-ran the pump. There were two leaks which I then repaired. The cause was not so great flares in the tubing. The EMS reported a fuel pressure of 10 PSI before it was obvious the relief valve was lifting causing fuel to flow back to the selector switch. I suspect this isn't accurate since the manual that came with the pump states that the relief valve is set to something like 23 PSI.
I then removed the oil line that goes to the top of the oil cooler and then added oil to the cooler.
With the plugs removed I dragged the plane out of the hanger and then hit the starter. After about 8 seconds of cranking there was no oil pressure. After another 5 or so again there was no pressure. I let the starter rest and then on the third try pressure built up nicely.
Then I put the plugs back in, tied the plane to Christine's truck and made one last check to see that everything is tight. I decided not to use chocks. I had about 150 yards of taxiway in front of me. If the engine were to go to full throttle and the tie down line break, I would rather kill the engine with the mixture, mag switches or fuel selector switch and coast to a stop rather than have the plane nose over the chocks.
Christine was ready with the fire extinguisher and I had a small Halon bottle in the plane. After 2 attempts (due to me having under primed it) I started the engine and ran it for about 3 minutes. The tachometer showed 700 RPM while running but it felt like a lot more than that. Yippee! It is alive!
Update: The tachometer in the EMS was set to 2 pulses per revolution. After visiting the Dynon web site it was clear that this should have been 1 per revolution. Supposedly Slick magnetos pulse positive and then negative in one revolution. The Dynon EMS only detects one.
