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07-02-2014, 07:05 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Newark, IL
Posts: 287
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Intake leak?
George, I recall similar symptoms caused by a missing hose clamp on one of the intake coupling hoses. (Just because an engine shop charged big bucks doesn't mean they got it right). As the engine warmed up, the hose softened and began letting air leak in, leaning the mixture on that cylinder. It was an easy fix. That was a carbureted engine, though. A similar leak might be expected to have less pronounced affect on an injected engine...??
- Roger
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07-02-2014, 07:18 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: va.
Posts: 523
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George,
I was working on my engine yesterday and looked for marks where you saw them and there is nothing there on my 0-320D1A. No casting marks there. It has Lycoming cylinders.
Last edited by wilddog : 07-02-2014 at 07:20 AM.
Reason: additon
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07-02-2014, 10:03 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Winnfield louisiana
Posts: 25
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Eci.. Cylinders
Think most of the eci cylinders had the seperation problems were the barrel meets the head..knot around the plugs. That does look like a mold crease. My cylinders wasn't the problem..my piston came apart on #1 cylinder and the nichel came off the # 2 cylinder wall on the other.. Didn't have a seperation at all.. I just bought 2 new cylinder assemblies and was done with it..that happen at 200 hrs. The other two are still rolling strong at 80/80.
__________________
Vans -6A &-6,Pitts S1c,Glasair,1500hrs
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07-03-2014, 01:44 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Charlotte NC
Posts: 1,166
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Wanted to post a follow up on the thread. Went over the engine again checking everything. ECI engineers looked at the pics and said no cracks and what looks just like a mold Line on number 2 matches up to what we thought may have been a crack on 3. Put the plane back together and did two ground runs with no issues. The second was to heat soak the engine.
Took it for a test flight and all was well with excellent balance on the EGT's. Let the engine heat soak on a 92 degree ramp and took off again. Climbed up to 7500 feet and saw rising EGT on 3. Did a mag check and the L plug in number 3 was dropping out. Went back down to fly home and all was well and a mag check revealed no issues at 19.5 inches LOP. The failure seems to be power/altitude/heat related. Hope it's a coil or plug issue. Only other symptom was erratic RPM reading when it was dropping a plug. I hope it's not the lightspeed box. To hot after the second flight to keep working but looks like at least it's narrowed down to ignition. Thanks for the help and will update with the final fix.
Now I have to figure out what to do with 4 flow matched ECI cylinders! Anyone need a set at a great price? ECI has been very helpful but there restocking fee is 25%! Ouch
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07-03-2014, 03:07 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 1,516
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Glad to hear it's not a cylinder issue or even a valve issue.
I didn't realize you had a lightspeed ignition but the Denso plugs should have been the give away.
Having your lightsped drop out would certainly cause a rise in EGTs and a number of things can cause intermittent problems.
Start with the easy stuff before you worry about the box, it is most likely not the box.
A loose connector on the coil, even a little loose, can cause arching and corrode a clean connection. Happen to me on my first plane with very similar symptoms. I didn't find the problem until after I had replaced the coils and all new ignition wires. It was not until I decided to replace the old RG58 cable with a newRG400 cable that I found the corroded spade connector and that was the cheapest part of all.
Good luck.
__________________
Ernst Freitag
RV-8 finished (sold)
RV-10 Flyer 600 plus hours
Running on E10 mogas
Don't believe everything you know.
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07-03-2014, 03:28 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Redding,Ca
Posts: 633
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Wires
Altitude and power both point to high tension ignition problems.
Just fixed a similar issue on my Cozy with Slck/PMAG ignition. With the slick off #3 EGT would drop off while the engine occasionally stumbled if I was at altitude and fairly high power. With the Slick on EGT would climb. New wires fixed it.
I'd install new plugs and then check the wires resistance. I don't know the spec off hand, but they should all be the same with the longer wires having higher resistance, but all 4 should be fairly close, something like 400-500 ohms probably. Having said that the wires can ohm out ok and still have an insulation fault somwhere. Also look for black residue inside the boots, or blackened grease if silicon dielectric was used...sure sign of arcing.
OR...cheap way, swap out a wire from another cylinder and see if the problem moves with the wire or goes away. In either case the wire was most likely the problem.
Good luck
Tim
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07-05-2014, 01:29 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Charlotte NC
Posts: 1,166
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Well the engine issue is solved and turned out to be simple. I think two lessons have been learned. Don't try and trouble shoot problems Long distance and if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck it's probably a duck.
Test flew today after plug and wire change on the L ign number 3. No joy and problem still there but only at higher altitudes with a hot engine. Could not duplicate lower or on the ground. Problem seemed to start approaching 6000 feet. Next step was to replace that coil. It was the only original coil on the aircraft and had 700 plus hours. I have not heard of half a coil failing at higher altitudes only but success! The coil changed fixed it and we put 3 flight and 2 hours on her with all temp indications back to normal. Odd failure but were fixed! Now what to do with 4 cylinders?
George
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07-05-2014, 02:56 PM
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Join Date: May 2014
Location: Savannah
Posts: 806
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O-320 or O-360 cylinders?
__________________
Mike Hammond
A&P IA PPL ASEL
RV-14A kit S/N 140170
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07-05-2014, 03:20 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Charlotte NC
Posts: 1,166
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Flow matched ECI standard barrel cylinders with 9 to 1 pistons.
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07-05-2014, 06:57 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Senoia, Georgia
Posts: 802
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sailvi767
Well the engine issue is solved and turned out to be simple. I think two lessons have been learned. Don't try and trouble shoot problems Long distance and if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck it's probably a duck.
Test flew today after plug and wire change on the L ign number 3. No joy and problem still there but only at higher altitudes with a hot engine. Could not duplicate lower or on the ground. Problem seemed to start approaching 6000 feet. Next step was to replace that coil. It was the only original coil on the aircraft and had 700 plus hours. I have not heard of half a coil failing at higher altitudes only but success! The coil changed fixed it and we put 3 flight and 2 hours on her with all temp indications back to normal. Odd failure but were fixed! Now what to do with 4 cylinders?
George
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George,
If it's an LSE Pasma ignition system that you have and you haven't done any other maintenance to your system other than plugs, I would give strong consideration to replacing the other coil and the remaining wires. The stuff wears. I recently went through some ignition trouble shooting at about 700 hours and I found a bad plug, and two bad wires. The real problem turned out to be a bad Hall effect in the end. If I remember well, Klaus recommends replacing wires at 500 hrs and it's not unusual for the coils to fail approaching 1000 hrs.
BTW, a while back ago I had a severely cracked Lyc. angle valve cylinder that I discovered during a routine annual compression check. The compression on that cylinder was about 15/80! The crack started at both sides of the top spark plug and went almost half way around! The crack was almost invisible and there was hardly any soot visible. It may have happened just prior to the compression check. Any power loss was insidious and I didn't notice any EGT or CHT issues. After I replaced the cylinder, it was indeed apparent I had lost some power with the cracked cylinder. My point is things don't always follow the general rules!
Jerry Esquenazi
RV-8 N84JE 800+ hours since 2007
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