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Today was a perfect day to fly. Calm winds on the ground and basically nothing up at altitude. I started off today by checking my idle speed. With the cowl off I started up the engine and checked the idle. Right around 800 RPM. Seemed good enough for me. I cowled her up and got her ready for flight. I decided I should start going through some of the tests needed to learn the RV as in the manual. Airspeed calibration seemed the be the easiest to do. Fly north, south, east and west and record the GPS ground speed and the indicated airspeed (also the altitude, altimeter setting and outside air temp to convert to true air speed (TAS)). My test today told me at 140 kts, my airspeed was reading 3 kts fast. Not to shabby.  After the test I did two loops around my Phase 1 area. I think I found my new favorite screen setup on my GRT EFIS's - left scree PFD and engine, right screen map and fuel flow. What a great system. I really like them a lot.  The colors in the trees were just great. Too bad my crappy camera doesn't take better pictures.  Chillin' at 6500'.   What? Uncowled again? Let's start with the good news. The oil after 2.2 hours is at the 5.5 quarts mark ont he dipstick. The place it always seems to be. Now for the real reason the RV is decowled.... I got back to DMW and upon landing saw my idle speed was up to 1000-1050 RPM. Landing seemed to take forever too. I fueled up and decided to punch more holes in the sky, knowing the runway at DMW is long enough and there is about 2 hours left in the day to fly. My hobbs is around 8.5 hours, so after another 1.5 hours I'll change the oil and when she's decowled, I will adjust the idle screw. So I did a runup and taxied over to the runway. On the taxi I noticed the engine sounded awful. Upon noticing this, I did recall that the engine did feel a little rougher today than it normally does. But then again, this thing is so new, I don't know what normal is. No excessive vibrations and no misses. All temps were good too. Maybe the CHT's were a little higher than normal. I wasn't comfortable at all taking off with the engine like this so I taxied back to the hangar. After I got back one of the linemen at DMW came over to congratulate me on first flight and he said the engine sounded a little rough. My other friend Mike T. (there are like 4 Mikes at DMW!) said the engine sounded rough when he passed on his drive to the hangar. So it wasn't just me. Anyways, I wanted to check out the timing and have a look for any induction leaks or anything else that looks off to find the culprit of the issue.  I first noticed some oil on the sump. I quickly tried to identify the source. Turns out I overfilled the dipstick one time and oil ran down the outside of the dipstick and down the sump, and wind probably blew it onto the engine mount.  I also took the plenum off. I wanted to give a good inspection. The first thing I checked was the timing. The MAG was right on. Maybe 1/2 degree off max - but pretty much right on. The EMAG was off about 3 degrees? How did that happen? I retimed it. I started up the engine, this time with the idle screw back 1/2 turn. The engine ran way better but the idle was too low. I increased the idle 1/4 turn and that got me down to 700 RPM idle. The engine seemed to be good with that too.  While I had the plenum off I wanted to block off some of the air intakes into the #1 and #2 cylinders. Van's has metal plates for this, but they are a little aggressive. I wanted to start with Aluminum tape to get things right.  I also put some UHMW tape on my engine mounts because the side cowl hinge pins were rubbing here. I used some wax lacing cord to hold them on.  Behind the #3 cylinder there is basically no spacing between the cylinder and the baffle. Someone on the VAF forums said to put a washer between the engine and the baffle to cause some more airflow over the #3 cylinder (my hottest).  So I put a AN960 and AN960L washer in there. The gap is significantly larger.  I then RTV'd over the gap that doesnt contribute to cooling.  I noticed the aft end of the canopy was squeeking against the rear window. You can see the evidence here on the aft side of the canopy. I filed it down then polished it up. Seems to be better now.  I did some interior decorating to the inside of the RV tonight too. I didn't know what to do with the floors, since they have the 3/4 stiffener angle on them. I had some 3/4" foam, leftover from the wingtip stiffener, so I thought it would be a good fit. They are just laid in there now. I will probably fly it like this tomorrow, then Velcro it down once it seems like it will work. Then put some carpet over it. Pink carpet of course. I wouldn't want to ruin any of the feng shui the pink creates..... 
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Last Modified: August 13, 2023 |