Last week was the first 2180 type 1 turbo run. This week was the second. For those of you who have not had your first engine run yet I'll share my experience.
Last week: Pull the top set of spark plugs, crack open one of the fittings feeding oil to the turbo charger and crank the engine over checking for oil pressure. crank. crank. crank. crank. No oil pressure. Lift the tailwheel and make the top longerons level. crank. crank. crank. No oil pressure. Remove the oil return line from the turbo to the intake on the oil pump, squirt oil into the pump to prime it. Reinstall the return line. crank.crank.crank. No oil pressure. Remove the turbo oil return line from the turbo housing and reorient it so it stands almost straight up, still connected at the oil pump end. Pour oil into the open line until there is (in the vertical tube) almost two feet of vertical oil going into the inlet on the oil pump. Observe the slightly cracked open oil line going to the turbo, looking for pressure there. crank, crank, crank,crank. No oil pressure. What's that on the floor? A huge puddle of oil from the opening on the bottom of the turbo housing where the line that is now vertical used to be. I guess that means it's pushing oil now. Clean up the oil from the floor. check the oil level (again), add some. Reinstall the turbo oil return line. crank crank crank, got pressure now. Reinstall the spark plugs. Remove the alligator clip wire that was grounding the p-lead terminal of the mag, and install the lead from the mag switch, tighten the nut. Everything ready! ok! Put gas in the tank, bleed the air out of the fuel lines. What's that smell? The bottom of the fuel tank is wet with fuel. No time to to fix it now, pull the tank out, replace it with a 1 gallon gas can rigged with a valve and fitting. Pull the airplane trailer into the street, get help to unload the plane. Unload the plane and tie the tail wheel to the basketball hoop post at the end of the culdesac. Crack the fitting for the gas line at the fuel primer nozzle on the intake manifold, pump the primer until some gas comes out. ok. Retighten the fitting, one last check that everything looks good, and hop in the plane, pump the primer. hmm the primer seems to only have pressure at the last 1/4 of it's inward stroke. Does not matter, it'll do (lots of guys don't even have a primer). Master on, EIS on, Ignition on, "Clear Prop", mixture full rich, throttle at 1/4, crank, crank, crank, crank, crank, crank, crank.crank. Hmm.. no fire. But I can smell fuel. This airplane has a key switch that goes (clockwise) Off, (Ign+Mag), Mag only, Start w/mag. It starts only with the mag, then I can add the second ignition system by turning the key one position towards off. I decide I must investigate. I reach for the key and turn it towards off, one click to the (Ign+Mag) position, then one more to the "off" position: *** BLAMO *** A BALL OF FIRE comes out of the exhaust! Woah! I knew right away that turning off the energized ignition system caused it to fire at least one spark plug, if not all 4 of them. The prop turned a half turn. Hmm.. the mag is not working I surmised. I disassembled the mag p lead wiring from the key switch and started ohming out the wires looking for the trouble: must be grounded somewhere. Nothing wrong at the switch, disconnecting the EIS tach lead had no effect. Finally, a close investigation of the mag itself showed that the ring terminal had grounded itself to the case of the mag. Bend the terminal away from the mag case, reassemble all the wiring that was disassembled for troubleshooting. It should fire now. Hop in the plane, "clear prop" and crank, crank, vrooooOOOMMM! Check the tach connected to the ignition system, reads near zero (that does not work), flip through the EIS pages for oil pressure, 47 lbs (good!), eis tach works! Batt voltage reported by the eis indicates no charge from the alternator. OK, got engine run, runs on ign and mag either or both ok, oil pressure ok, full power run up won't develop turbo boost. Max manifold pressure is 28" mercury. max rpm about 2700. NOT what I was hoping for, idle adjustment is WAY off, but runs smooth. The used turbocharger throws black oily chunks onto the top of the wing (dirty mess). Enough for one day, back to work for a week... weeks over time to try again! Drain aluminum fuel tank, run a vaccuum cleaner blower forcing air into the tank to dry it out, 4 hours later still has fuel in it. Give up on getting tank dry. Instead turn the tank upside down, fill opening down. Fill three kitchen size garbage bags with helium/argon gas mix from mig welder, pinch the bag closed, put the pinched closed end of the bag in the fuel fill opening and fill the tank with helium from underneath. 3 bags of helium in the tank, go ahead and weld the pinhole with fuel dripping and vapor in the tank, the helium stops combustion. Didja see that smoke come out of the tank? reinstall tank. Fix oil leak at top of engine, replace bolts that fell off the exhaust J-tube on the left side last run (big exhaust leak), Install heat wrap on exhaust near oil filter. flip all the switches inside the automotive tachometer relative to the cylinder count, any setting is better than last time, and the instructions are missing so just flip 'em. Perform the calibration procedure for the manifold pressure sensor for the EIS. Very happy that there is a good ol's steam guage also for that. Rig that 12volt winch from the garage sale 4 years ago to try that out for letting the plane down the ramp out of the trailer. Unload plane and tie it to the basketball pole again. "clear prop" Vroom!! (Did I hear someone yell stop??) pull lean mixture until stopped. Did you say something? "Yeah the strap came off the pole, you were about to leave, do the brakes work?" "Put 4 half hitches in it, that'll hold it" "What's a half-hitch?" "Nevermind, I'll do it. See? like this.." "clear prop" Varoom! Mag only, both, ign only, oil pressure, temps cold, warm it up... Idle screw is still wrong. All warmed up? ok, lets' see what wev'e got for power this time.. manifold pressure rises, back pff the throttle at 31 inches mercury, 3000 rpm static.. now that's what I was looking for. Hear that turbine spool up? yeah baby. ok, engine's ready. Now to build a canopy, foredeck and cowl. Oh, and clean up this mess. Sorry for the long posting.] jg
