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Old 2nd Dec 2013, 01:53
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Old Akro
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Melbourne
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Shock horror. I've now discovered that all 6 nozzles have identical sized bores and all flow the same rate.
I'm not a major fan of Continental mainly because their QC is so bad. Walter knows much more than probably any of us (or all combined), but there is no mystery about aircraft injection. Its what is colloquially called "piss & dribble". The injectors are pretty much brass fittings with a hole that sprays fuel continuously. This is nowhere near car injectors which spray a timed jet of fuel at the optimal part of the cycle - aircraft injectors emit a constant stream of fuel regardless of whether the valve is open or not. The amount of fuel depends on the fuel pressure & hole size. Full stop. Its not much more technical than punching a hole in the bottom of a can and letting fuel pour out.

The diameter of the hole and the surface finish of the hole are critical to the amount of fuel dispensed. A score from the tool machining the hole can affect the fuel flow. With all due respect, you are unlikely to be able to measure the bores with the required accuracy to tell a difference. If you wanted to have a go at looking for differences you should try jerry rigging a flow bench with a fuel pump and a safe-ish fluid, maybe diesel. It won't be completely accurate, but should show a difference when you time a measured amount squirting into a bucket.

All this means that manufacturing quality is critical, which is where Continental fails & GAMI wins.

The other issue is that the design of the Continental intake tubes is from somewhere around the Jurassic era. The lack of any hint of attempt to create tuned length intake runners, similar length intake runners, smooth intake runners, matched plenum tube volumes or apply any scientific design means that the fuel charge is not even from cylinder to cylinder. Tuned injectors is really code for delivering different fuel quantities to different intake runners in an attempt to get each cylinder to receive the same amount of charge (fuel/ air mixture).

If this was a car engine and didn't have the certification issues of aircraft, there would be some guys making replacement intake manifolds by now.
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