Started this puppy up for the first time.
Nice clear day.
Bill flew his -7 over from HMB to help. First thing he spotted was a loose fuel-to-servo line. Not a promising start to the day. Tightened everything properly, one last look, then tied the plane to my 4Runner and chocked it. Fire extinguishers inside and outside the plane, ready to go.
Start 1: Fired right up, instant oil pressure. Ran smooth, quieter than I thought it would be. CHTs topped out at 260/301/270/280 after about 5 minutes. Everything in the green. Fuel flow around 1.8gph @ 1000 RPM. Tested idle. Couldn't get it below 750 RPM so I'll call that idle for now. AC90-89 Idle mixture check: Pull mixture control back and watch for 50 RPM rise. Nothing, so maybe idle mixture is too lean. Did normal ICO shutdown.
Start 2: No good! Cranked it and it sputtered a bit w/black smoke but petered out. Another -7 builder showed up to watch. Tried about 6-7 times and we all concluded I flooded the engine with too much boost pump. Fuel coming out the sniffle valve so yea let's let it rest for about 15 minutes.
Start 3: No boost pump priming, just crank. Started right up again. Everything is in the green. Mag check: Grounding each mag results in RPM drop of ~100. Magnetos off = engine stops so no hot mag.
That's it. Didn't want to jinx it by fiddling around any more. Three notable squawks are 1. that possible idle mixture issue, 2. slightly higher than expected idle speed, and 3. I had a little bead of oil seeping out the bottom where the filter attaches. G3X put out tons of data for me to pour over obsessively this week. Good day overall.