It's getting a bit tedious writing these "still haven't started the engine" posts, but it is what it is.
Yesterday I spent about 10 hours at the hangar. I assembled the borrowed, modular, engine hoist and removed the prop. The flywheel refused to come loose - one of its holes was a really, really tight fit on the prop bushing in the crankshaft. I made a trip into town to buy some penetrating oil and a rubber hammer. A bit of penetrating oil and some gentle taps from the rubber hammer did the job.
I then checked and rechecked to be sure I was putting the flywheel back in the correct orientation. There was an "O" next to one of the prop bushing holes on the flywheel that was supposed to line up to an "O" on the crank. I couldn't find any "O" on the crank, so resorted to putting the #1 piston at top dead centre by feeling in a spark plug hole, and putting the top dead centre mark on the flywheel in line with the crank case.
Putting the prop back on is a bit fiddly, as you can only turn each captive prop bolt a bit before another prop bolt end hits the prop hub. You have to go round and round, from bolt to bolt, turning each one a bit at a time.
I couldn't find my prop bolt torquing adapter - I had looked for it at home the night before, couldn't find it, so I assumed it was at the hangar. But I couldn't find it at the hangar, so that meant one more trip into town to the hardware store.
I just finished torquing the prop bolts when Dan from Canadian Airmotive Avionics showed up to do the transponder to altimeter correlation checks. That took about an hour, then I had a late lunch.
After lunch, I spent a good long time getting the mag retimed, then the same with the electronic ignition. Then I tracked down someone to be fire guard while I tried another engine start.
The first time I tried an engine start, I ended up with quite a bit of fuel that later drained out of the sniffle valve in the bottom of the induction manifold. I interpreted that as a sign that I had flooded the engine. So, this time I was perhaps a bit too cautious with the fuel. The engine fired several times, but I never succeeded in getting it to run. The fire guard said he thought it needed more fuel. But, the battery ran down pretty quickly, so I had to stop.
The battery seems to have a lot less capacity that I expected. I had completely drained it twice during the construction phase by forgetting to turn the battery master switch off when I was finished testing something. I had planned to replace the battery before I started the night and IFR phase, but I have decided to order a new one now.
Also, I did some investigation into the battery charger that I have been using. I compared its specs against what Odyssey, the battery manufacturer, recommends, and found that this charger (Battery Tender Junior), isn't even close to the recommendation in their "Technical Manual". And, it seems that my charger is putting out even less voltage than its spec sheet says it should. It looks like the battery has not been getting anywhere close to fully charged, and it may be a dodgy battery at that. So, today I bought a much nicer battery charger, recommmended by Odyssey, an ACI BCSC 7a.
It looks like I've been fighting perhaps four different issues:
Ignition timing problems caused by flywheel angle error - fixed.
Inadequate battery charger - new charger purchased today.
Possible low battery capacity, which limits the number of start attempts - new battery ordered tonight. I may cobble together a temporary external power cart connection, as one of my hangar mates has a golf cart with an external power cable.
Pilot who isn't yet sure what exact start technique his engine likes - I've received lots of good advice from several builders, plus I've looked at many POHs for type-certificated aircraft with this engine.
I was a bit bummed out last night, which is why I didn't update the web page with yesterday's story. But, I'm happier today. This aircraft has been over ten years in the making, and I'm almost there. A few days more delay to fight with this engine is nothing in the big picture.
I'll be going back to the hangar after lunch tomorrow. I'll throw the new charger on the battery, and give a couple of hours to top things up. Then I'll have yet another go at starting this blasted engine (assuming it isn't raining).
