Fowards and Backwards

Good news, bad news, good attitude.

The good news is the engine runs! Having said that, this is all extremely uncharted territory, and if it wasn't for Lynn French, I would be completely in the dark. Lynn is the character that first installed an electronic fuel injection and ignition, in his Tri-Q-200.

I used Bosch 24 lh/hr. fuel injectors, sometimes referred to as "blue tops". These are the same size that Lynn uses and it seemed like a good starting point. The ECU is programmable and you can adjust the fuel flow to your own particular application and injectors. When we first got it started, it was extremely rich. I mean rich, to the point where there was black smoke plainly coming out of the exhaust and now there are two major soot streaks running down the belly.

The first few times I ran it, it was kind of a sensory overload; all these new dials, buttons, and the like, to learn. And, it seemed like some features worked and some didn't. It was, and still is, a lot to sort out.

There is a fair amount of programming of the controller to do. The idea is to first match the basic flow of the injectors to the engine, then to map out the mixture tables.

Adjusting the mixture is interesting. First, instead of a mixture knob that you pull out, there is a mixture dial on the Programming Control Module (PCM). You use the dial for tweaking, but you use the Program Variable, Mode and Store controls to make your adjustments permanent. (Over simplification, really).

To adjust the mixture, you really can't use the conventional EGT. We welded a bung into one of the exhaust stacks and have installed a Bosch automotive oxygen sensor. This is connected to a gauge in the cockpit and it provides a digital presentation if the mixture is rich or lean. This gauge reacts much faster than a regular EGT and is easy to interpret. The first sensor I bought didn't work very well, so I bought a better one which has it's own heater.

The O2 sensor is temporary. They are designed for unleaded fuel and after a while 100LL is said to clog them up. I only need it though, for the initial mixture mapping.

All of this is so new to me and there is so much to learn. Sheesh!

After a while we (C-Rod and I), came to the conclusion that the programming button wasn't working. Now, we may be mistaken, but we think we have it right. Anyway, after lots of diagnostic e-mails, back and forth, with the controller designer/manufacturer, I pulled the unit and am returning it for evaluation.

I will say that the engine starts easily, and seems to run fairly well, considering. There are lots of unknowns here, I have an automotive racing throttle body, homemade induction system and lots of seat-of-the-pants engineering, so I am taking everything in stride.

I guess I'll work on my taxes while I wait the outcome of the controller.

My Red Letter Day

The engine started.

Yes, and I think it's starting to set in. It has been one year, two months, and 15 days since I last flew it, and the engine ran. But, who's counting?

The ice and snow is finally gone, so today C-Rod came out to help and try to fire it up. Hardly anything is safetied or tied down, I just wanted to see if the darned thing would run.


We tied it to my car, looked it all over and hit the button. The prop spun but no start. The EC3 controls both spark and fuel, so after a while I suggested that Charley spray in a little starting ether and see what that did.

I tried it again, and the engine lit and spun up! So, that must have meant the ignition part was working but there was something wrong with the fuel injector part.

We looked and looked, tore some wires fuel injector apart, checked pins, connectors, cables, wiring, all sorts of stuff. Still couldn't get the injectors to fire.


Then I said, "Let's see if maybe it's just the remaining magneto that is working and not the electronic ignition. Charley, spray some more ether and I'll try it with the mag off". It briefly roared and spun over fast as the ether fired up and tried to start.

But, I wondered if the magneto was really turned off. Maybe the mag was working and the ignition was not. "Charley, lets remove the plug wires and try it". So we pulled the Slick's wires, but the engine still tried to start on the ether.

"Charley, just for grins, pull the ALL the plug wires". So he did. To our astonishment, the engine STILL tried to fire up when boosted with the ether! Apparently, the high compression (9:1) pistons caused the either to diesel and ignite.

So, our initial supposition that the ignition must be working, was invalid. We decided to go back to the basics and make sure that the EC3 ECU was getting all the input it needed, and whattya know?

We found two wires reversed. It turns out the main power, from the "A" switch was being sent to the "B" side of the ECU, and vice-versa. Because of this the ECU, wasn't getting fed 12 volts.

I think we would have figured this out four hours earlier, if we weren't led astray by that goofy starting ether. After that was corrected it fired right up!



We ran it for about 15 minutes and seemed to be good. There is still a lot to be done, to be learned, and bugs to be ironed out, but it was a Red Letter Day!

Winter

Went to the hangar today, first time in a week. Too cold to work and enthusiasm was low. There is a ridge of solid ice, about 8" thick, all along the hangar door. If I hit the "OPEN" button, I would destroy the hangar door.

But hooray, tomorrow it's going to be in the 50s and the forecast is way above freezing for at least a week!

Maybe I can get the engine started next week. At least the oil in my new sump hasn't leaked out.

Updated Progress Report

No Engine Start This Month

Winter has dealt an unfortunate blow. Until two days ago, we had a total winter accumulated snowfall of 3/8" and I was gloating about it. However, for the past two days, everything is shut down. The Southern Illinois Airport has been closed for two days. Even the Dairy Queen is closed. M'boro has about two plows and a they are overloaded. We are still waiting for a plow on our street.


I helped the neighbors get free two mornings in a row. Naturally, I got them out with my years of experience living up north. (beats hands on chest).

I doubt I will get to the hangar today, and tomorrow I have to drive to Chicago, to give a presentation on Friday.

Right now, it looks more like an engine on a test stand, than an airframe. I just want to get the thing running, then come the refinements.

So, maybe Tuesday or Wednesday, provided I can get the plane out of the hangar. So here we sit...

The Drum Roll ... Please

My goal was to have an engine start by the end of January.

The fuel injection lines are all hooked up and I checked for leaks. There is now six quarts of oil in the home made oil sump. Spark plugs and wires are installed. There is a propeller on the plane. There is 10 gallons of fresh gas in the plane. All I need to do hook up the wires for the five fuel intectors, and we're ready.

They are predicting, for tomorrow, one of the worst winter storms we've had in years.

Tonight...Snow...sleet and a chance of freezing rain. Snow may be heavy at times. Snow and sleet accumulation of 4 to 6 inches. Ice accumulation of up to one quarter of an inch. Lows in the lower 20s. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.

Tuesday...Freezing rain and sleet. Sleet accumulation of 1 to 2 inches. Ice accumulation of up to one quarter of an inch. Highs in the mid 20s. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.

Tuesday Night...Snow likely with possible sleet and freezing rain in the evening...then snow likely after midnight. Snow and sleet accumulation of 2 to 4 inches. Total snow accumulation 7 to 10 inches. Total ice accumulation one quarter to one half inch. Lows around 17. North winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation 80 percent.

Other than that, it's all good.

Starting to look like an Engine again

I've got the exhaust mounted, ignition coils, the spark plugs, EGT/CHT, and a bunch of other stuff. The wires look bad, but it's really not that bad. UPS brings the last of the fuel fittings on Monday.

A Wife Can Cut to the Chase

At breakfast, I remarked to Sandy that she hadn't produced a painting, suitable for hanging on the wall, since she started taking formal art classes at SIU. She responded, "You haven't flown your plane in a year, either".

It's 18 degrees, here in Murphysboro, and the winds are 16 gusting to 26. Windchill is 3 F.

I hope to have an engine start next week.

Sam the Plumber

Cold weather continues to hamper progress. Last week it was 19 degrees F and the hangar was probably 23F.

To me, this electronic fuel injection is a big deal to install, but very interesting. Right now, I still don't have have all the plumping fittings that I need.

It seems like I always have the wrong ones. I recently sat down and ordered everything I thought I'd need. I used a couple of sources, Summit Racing and Ebay. When everything arrived I found a major screw-up. I ordered -6 fittings, instead of -4. Rats! You ever try and return anything through Ebay?

Yesterday, I found that even the different brands aren't always compatible. I had accumulated Earls's fittings, Summit Racing's own brand and Aeroquip. I find that the Earl's fittings don't like the Aeroquip braided hose. From here on out I will try to use the Aeroquip, but man, they are proud of their stuff! Expensive!

The fuel system is a closed loop. Here is the path:

From the header tank
through the shutoff valve
through the 40 micron gascolator
through the fuel pump
through the 10 micron filter
through the left firewall
past five fuel injectors
returned through the right firewall
through the fuel pressure regulator and
back into the header tank.

There are probably 30 joints where fuel can leak, this part is a challenge.

Speaking of fuel injection, through a rotary engine news group, I came across a link on rolling your own fuel injection controller, from Paul Lamar. While it may look promising, it apparently hasn't been built yet. There is also some information about Klaus Savier's fuel injection system.

Throttle connections

It's kind of hard to see in these photos (click on'em to see them bigger) , but more progress is happening. A new throttle cable is installed and attached to a sideways mounted, Jenvey racing throttle body. Each intake tube gets a fuel injector and the throttle body has a fifth one for an emergency get-home device.

The end of the throttle cable housing has to be securely secured, which was yet another problem for this installation. I wound up embedding a couple of Clickbond studs on the side of the carbon fiber oil sump and attached a bracket to hold the throttle. The photos aren't the greatest, but I'll get more when things move on a little.



You can see the fittings for the fuel injectors, along with the obligatory duct tape. Since the fuel will be pressurized at 42 psi, it's imperative that nothing leaks - so I'm spending a lot of time cogitating on the matter and searching for fuel proof duct tape.


Photo of the right side of the oil sump, showing the attached throttle and sump support brackets.


The goal is to fire up the engine started by the end of the month on January 2009.

Year-end Update

Off topic, from the '70s. Here's an old photo of me and my buddies making a practice jump at East Troy, Wisconsin. We were getting ready for regional 10-man speed star competition.


It was a good year, but I do regret not getting to fly and race this thing.

Having said that, I am really getting close. I'm working on firewall forward and things aren't too bad. I just had two days of working with the hangar door open and it is really a morale booster. So much better than trying to think and fabricate in a dungeon.

My most recent success (meaning overcome obstacle) is mounting my ignition coils. With the RWS EC3 injection/ignition system, each plug gets it's own LS1 coil. I understand these coils are used on Corvette engines. I took a cue from Lynn French's creative installation and mounted two of them directly on the engine mount. I think this will work pretty well.




My short-term goal is to fire up the engine by the end of January.

I don't work in a total vacuum and certainly don't have the skills to do it all myself. Here are just some of the people that helped me this past year. I know I don't have everyone and if you don't see yourself here, please don't be offended. I probably lost those brain cells connected with your name.

Billy Cheek
Bob Knuckolls and the AeroElectric Connection e-mail list
Bruce Dallas
Charley "C-Rod" Rodriguez
Cory Steinkoneig
David Posey
Dennis Hannon
Don Bartlett
Grither's Auto Body
Harry Hinckley
Jerry Marstall
John Cotter
John Eynon
Ken Robinson
Larry Dauer
Keven Mitchell
Lynn French
Mike Bergen
Mike Burgener
Mike Dwyer
Mike Most
Rob Hoskins
Various SIU Aviation Technology students

And the award for the most help and patient understanding goes to:

My beautiful wife, Sandy

My original target date, for project completion, was May 1, 2008. I still think that was realistic for the original project list, but I kept adding things and it grew and grew and grew. Not on the original list were; replacement of the rear wing, new canopy, and TWO PAINT JOBS.

I just need to stay at it.

Composite Oil Sump is 99.4% Complete

Don't try this at home!

There were just a few things to attend to for the oil sump; like installing a filler cap and post curing the thing. You can refer back to this post to see how I got it this far. http://samhoskins.blogspot.com/2008/06/carbon-fiber-oil-sump.html

I was able to get into the composites lab at SIU AvTech to make the final parts. I used an AN825-20D cap and an AN824-20D nut as the final fitting. I intend to insert a 1/8" welding rod as the dipstick. Thanks to Justin Mace for that idea.

After the thing was complete, I used an oven at SIU to post cure it. This particular epoxy remains quite brittle until the crosslink reaction is complete. I kept it at 140 degrees for 10 hours, then ramped it up to 300 degrees for about 20 minutes. This oven has a precise thermostat and a circulating fan. As you can see, it just barely fit!

After I fabricate the dipstick I'll have to shorten the oil sump suction tube. Then it'll be time to bolt it up and add oil!

I sure hope it doesn't leak.

Today's report

Just a quick update. I'm working on the firewall forward stuff now. The bigger challenges here are to install the trigger sensor, the four LS1 ignition coils, complete earlier work on the carbon fiber oil sump, and install the new Jenvy throttle body and linkage.

As usual, the biggest hurdle is just starting. I had been fretting about it a lot, but I found once I got started on the trigger sensors bracket that it was no big deal. Using a free CAD program, I laid out the drawing. Then it was just a lot of cutting, drilling and fitting.

My main tools are a band saw, drill press and a vice. No mill or lathe, unfortunately. Here's a couple of photos of the trigger sensor. Click on the photos to see 'em bigger.

NOW we're making progress!!!

Here's couple of photos of both behind the scenes and the new panel. I still have another day of hooking up some of the Dynon and ICOM wires, but we're pretty much good to go.

This first photo shows the pilot's rudder pedals, the finned voltage regulator, and the blue thing is the filter capacitor. You can also see the high pressure fuel tubing and the blue return hose.


After setting the instrument panel in place and crimping on about a hundred wires (well, maybe 25) I hooked up a battery and connected power. At first nothing worked. Couldn't get the master switch to operate.

Oh yea. I have to hook up the instrument panel ground plug. Still nothing worked.

Oh yea. I have to hook up the fat engine ground wire. Still nothing worked.

Oh yea. I have to hook up those five other grounds. (I'll have to get a photo of the forest of ground tabs).

Still...

Found a broken wire on the switch that goes to the master solenoid.

NOW SOMETHING WORKS!!!!

I was able to switch on the master and run some fuel pumps and the strobe lights. But, I couldn't get the main distribution bus to run on it's own. No nav lights either.

But, the nav lights are on the same bus as the strobe. Damn. I hope I wired up that bridge diode correctly. Checked it out and it seems okay, but maybe I drew the diode in backwards and wired it according to the drawing . Let's take the meter and work backwards to see where power is feeding from.

Oops! I forgot to install the fuse for both the bus and for the nav lights.

Now EVERYTHING works! Well, everything meaning everything that's hooked up. So, in a couple of days I should be able to start working on the installation in earnest.

Thank God I didn't let any smoke out of the wires.

The Instrument Panel is In

It's been almost exactly one year since I pulled the instrument panel and yesterday I set the new one back in place. Still working in a 43 degree hangar, but with the halogen lights, I actually feel like I might be getting a sun burn.

I recorded a couple of weights before it went in. The .050" aluminum panel, switches, wire, and brackets comes in at 7 pounds. Adding the Dynon, the hand held GPS, transponder, and com radios brought it up to 15 pounds.

Like I said, I have better than a hundred wires in this set-up. It's relatively easy to work behind the panel area, before it's installed, but becomes much more limited now that it's in place. This was so much easier 22 years ago.

I'll sit on my haunches for quite a few minutes at a time and when I have to get out of the plane to get something, it takes a while to unfold myself. Toward the end of the exercise, as I was crawling over the side rail, I got a sudden damned charlie horse. Ouch!

After a few adjustments, I stuck the panel in place and started hooking up some wires. Each wire is tagged with a number; Axx - general airframe, Exx - EC3 Engine Control Unit related, and Dxx - part of the Dynon D180 FlightDEK. Everything is pretty well identified on my drawings and, in theory, it's just a matter of crimping on a terminal and sticking it on the proper switch.

About two hours into it I did find I had forgotten to run a critical wire - the wire that feeds +12V to the ignition coils. Rats. Well, it won't be bad to run the new one.

I keep imagining the fun I'll have as I actually apply power and start flipping a few switches. With a little luck, things will operate and I won't let the smoke out of the wires.

No photos today.

A Year Ago, Today

A year ago today was the last time I flew the Quickie. The target date for getting back in the air was May 1, 2008. I guess I missed that one a little.

On this anniversary, I was planning on making a list of all the things I have changed, but that would be boring and time consuming, so maybe I'll do that after the plane is once again airborne.

The latest update; lots more wires going in, still working on the final electrical system design, and getting ready to install the panel.


It looks rough, but it will all clean up.

More From the Dungeon

Sometimes I feeling like I am working in a dungeon. I have two light stands, a lighted magnifier at the work bench, a portable trouble light, a light bulb in my drill press and my pedestal grinder, and a 150 watt bulb waaay at the top of the hangar. I do arrange it to illuminate my particular task, but overall it's pretty dim.

The temperatures aren't too bad - yet. However, today we are supposed to have a high of 37 degrees and I may get five degrees more than that after the lights have been on for an hour or so.

But enough whining...

The wiring is coming along well. I am dangerously close to being able to permanently install the instrument panel. Yesterday, I decided to change where the fuel injection fuel re-enters the cockpit and had to order a few more AN fittings from Summit Racing.

This photo shows the main battery and the two always hot battery busses in the passenger's baggage compartment. (You are seeing the shelves through the tailcone opening.) This wiring scheme is based on Bob Nuckolls' drawing Z-19RB, electronic fuel injection w/dual rear batteries, page A & page B. The always hot busses feed the electronic control unit, the ignition coils, the fuel injectors, and the fuel injection pumps. (click on photo for more detail.)


With the help of a fellow EAAer I installed the new starter contactor and ran the starter's fat wires. I am using 4AWG welding cable which is very flexible and tough. I'm soldering the terminals and it's working out pretty well. Here is Bob's article on soldering fat wires.

BTW, if you haven't already gotten familiar with Bob Knuckolls and his AeroElectric Connection you are missing the boat. This man has provided a wealth of information for aircraft electrical systems, and has made it available for a song. Buy his book!

It was also time to get the engine off the stand and back where it belongs, to see how everything seems to be fitting. It's not on permanently, but it is heartening to see it back where it belongs, even if it is temporary.

The Darkest Night is Just Before Dawn

Now that the days are getting shorter and it's getting colder, I'm having to hunker down a little. Right now, anyway, the hangar is still tolerable. This week the indoor temperature ranges from 50 to 60 degrees and I'm still comfortable. Unfortunately, I have to keep the door closed and it makes it a little like working in a dungeon. I have a couple of halogen trouble light stands which kick out a good amount of light.

Here's a photo of the executive office:


The wiring is coming along well, but the wire count is quite high. I would say I will be having to identify, cut, add terminals, and mark over a hundred wires, before it's all done. But, like I tell my wife, this is the fun part. I should be able to permanently install the instrument panel by the end of the week.



One wire at a time, every thing is falling neatly into place. There are three major systems involved. First the aircraft electrical system, which I have made redundant because the plane is now all electric. Then, I have the Dynon FlightDek D180 EFIS/EMS system. And finally, I have the RWS EC3 electronic ignition and fuel injection system.

Yikes! The Stripes!

Just a couple of photos to show the paint stripe, courtesy of Sandy. She gave me the stripes for my upcoming 38th birthday. Or is it my 48th? Or....?

As always, click on the photo to see it bigger. Questions and comments are always welcome.