Guys.
For the past couple weeks i have been fixing oil leaks and doing
some other repairs and changes. After a couple hours of in flight testing
I can say that i have a positive improvement to mixture and balancing
between left and right bank in the corvair with a slide type carb. aero
carb in my case but the guys with the ellisons have been reporting
similar mixture indications.
Anyway after more than 2 hours the results are very promising.
During an hour straight of 90% throttle (3240 rpm) the exhaust temps in
a leaned out setting (rich of peak by about 50 deg.) The max span was 78
deg. The at was the #6 cylinder at 1340 deg. The rest of the exhaust
temps were all with in 40 deg of each other and scattered around from
side to side instead of one full side high and one full side lower.
Another phenomenon was that exhaust temps on one bank would be the high
temp bank in climb but the lower temps in cruise flight. That seems to
have gone away also.
The way this was achieved is repeatable I think by everyone. I
installed a product called the Tornado. They are pricey by my standards
for what they seem to be but the result is good so far.
I had originally tried it the way the instructions tell you to
and the result was down right scary. The installation is supposed to go
in front of the carb. I think that is for simplicity for all their
customers and prevent a liability issue from a car owner tearing into
their car manifold. This time I installed it in the intake manifold
directly behind the carb (which was more intuitive to me from the start)
The St. Stl. part has 6 radiuses turning veins in it that would seem to
encourage the flow to spiral and become more homogenous. As opposed to
the effect that the slide in the carb must have that seems to favor one
side of the intake tube.
One of the next things to try is actually leaning to peak in
cruise and see if the results are the same. I can not explain or be sure
of a couple other things that I noticed - one of which is higher overall
exhaust temps from idle on up. Another is the mixture gauge does not even
register at all at idle rpm.
For the record the conditions of flight today were
30.49 baro.
4500 to 5500 altitude
3240 rpm
oat 23 deg
airspeed about 160 mph
head temps 285 to 305
oil temp 190 deg.
To mix some KR fun into all this work I gave my 18 year old son
his first ride for 1.2 hours. I took him up to Pocono raceway and let
him get some pictures. It was a little hazy and for the first time I got
myself a little misplaced and had to find my way by locating where we
were on the gps. I wasn't really lost, just one of those times that I
got to here I was going and beyond before i knew it. I kept all the
flying smooth and gentle and greased a great landing in hopes of stirring
something in him for the future. Now Mother is the only one that has not
even gotten in for a ride.
Joe Horton, Coopersburg, Pa.
joe.kr2s.buil...@juno.com
