Which Fuel Injection Sys for IO-360 RV-8's?

[TomVal]

For the RV-8 drivers with IO-360?s, which fuel injection system are you using and were there any airbox installation interference problems?

Thanks,

[Mike S]

Airflow Performance is well known, and respected here.

The owner is a VAF member, and often addresses fuel issues, very helpful and knowledgeable.

Fourth ad down on the left.

[DanH]

I second the motion. All in favor....

[Neal@F14]

The ECI Titan EXP fuel injection system (formerly Airmotive Engineering) works very well too. It's a constant-return type, much like the Continental FI systems. It does have its pros and cons however.

Pros are that it has a constant flow return system, that keeps cool fuel circulating thru the engine-driven pump to help alleviate vapor lock conditions. Hot starts aren't a big problem, and I actually found it pretty easy to hot start even in the brutal north Texas summer heat once I acquired the right touch of boost pump duration, and mixture/throttle settings. The ECI system on my friend's RV-8 also seems to meter all 4 cylinders very equally and balanced... I only played around with LOP for a short while on my Oshkosh trip in the plane, but since it's a brand new engine, did not want to run LOP for any extended times. I briefly saw some amazingly low GPH numbers with the mixture pulled way back and it was still running glassy smooth. We'll definitely see for certain what LOP numbers we can achieve when cooler flying weather gets here.

Cons are that it requires an expensive duplex Andair fuel selector valve and extra complexity in the fuel line plumbing to route a pair of return lines, one back to each tank thru the valve so it returns to the same tank you're feeding from. It's also a royal pain to get all the fuel pressure metering and idle adjustments calibrated just right for your engine. We were lucky enough to know someone who had a good set of precision fuel pressure gauges and the experience from working on the Continental injection systems who helped us get it calibrated correctly, without that help we doubt we'd have gotten it correct ourselves.

This particular RV-8 has the ECI cold air induction system that doesn't route thru the sump, and is a horizontal, front inlet system. The Vans-supplied fiberglass intake snorkel (airbox) fit almost perfect, and required only a tiny bit of fiberglass reshaping to fix a spot it was hitting something. It connects to the FI system using an ECI-supplied snorkel adapter kit. The lower cowl is the Vans smooth-bottom "Slick" cowl, and the rectangular air filter sits horizontal in the left cowl inlet just in front of cylinder #2.

All in all, this system and installation fits and performs extremely well in an RV-8, but is significantly more expensive and difficult to install and configure than other FI systems.

[mike newall]

This is what we did.

Once we decided on the thickness using MDF, we had an aluminum spacer made locally - works a treat.

[hydroguy2]

Originally Posted by DanH

I second the motion. All in favor....

raises hand....."aye"

[lancef53]

I agree with the others--Don at airflow is great!

[Jerry Cochran]

My Superior IO-360 came with a Precision RSA setup and forward facing cold air sump. So smooth cowling and absolutely zero issues so far except that when I was using 92 oct mogas (methanol free, btw), I would get what I figured was some vapor lock right after refuel. Cleared up during runup and since then have gone back to 100LL with no vapor lock issues. No return line with RSA of course...

When up above 8000' I'll go LOP and see 7.8 gph or better with all EGT's close to even. Went 769 sm to KBIL two weeks ago and burned 30.1 gals. Yes, there was a nice tailwind at 11.5... LUV these RV's

[Jerry Cochran]

Tom,

This begs the questions: Which two cylinders went down, and how did it run on the remaining ones, were you able to keep a percent of power going or did you have to shut it down?

Thanks,

[PIN 37]

I removed my FADEC system and used Airflow Performance injection and duel Lightspeeds on my 360 (Mattituck ) engine.