Eggman
2nd May 2002, 14:33
What are your best techniques for starting Continental and Lycoming fuel injected engines, cold, hot and flooded?
Do all injected Continentals use the same procedure?
Do all injected Lycomings use the same procedure?
flickoff
2nd May 2002, 20:43
In th eabsence of anyone else, here's my 2d's worth. Caveat however is that I know the square root of ****** all except that I own an aircraft with an AEIO360 in it which is injected ( hence the I)
Cold starting: Mixture to full rich throttle open, presurise the fuel line with either a 3 or 4 second burst of electric fuel pump or 3 or 4 strokes of the "wobble pump" depending on the set up;
mixture to lean, throttle cracked to about the point that gives you something about 1200, 1500 rpm
mags to both, hit the starter/turn the key. As it fires full rich, adjust throttle as required. (remember if you have tail dragger to keep the stick back otherwize possible mucho expensive new propeller time)
Hot: mixture to lean, no priming, throttle cracked turn the key mixture to rich as it fires. If it doesn't fire after a couple of goes, try a very brief, 1 second or one stroke, prime on the fuel line.
Flooded: mixture to ICO, full throttle, turn the key. If it fires mixture to rich throttle to sensible rpm (the three handed paper hanger trick, expecially in a tail dragger) Don't wind the starter for ever it gets very hot. After a couple of bursts like this, which will eject the unwanted fuel. Best option if it doesn't start arfter a reasonable amount of tries, have a cup of coffee and a pee, and come back to it as though it was a hot start. A reasonable amount of time to try is that lenght of time that you would churn it over in front of a large crowd before you started to feel a ****!
Hot in my a/c is anything over about 110 degrees c oil temp.
I offer this as my how to start my aircraft guide. It never ceases to amaze me however that every injected a/c I get in seems to have a different SOP as far as starting is concerned. Some say switch the fuel pump on and leave it on some don't, some say satrt with mixture rich etc etc. All I can really say is try not to over prime as that is a pain in the arse, but remember that if there is no fuel on the sparky pluggy thing, it will not go, whether you are a 50 hour PPL or a 20,000 NASA quailfied thing pilot.
If yu do over prime and it fires on only a couple of cylinders (yuo will know this as it sounds as rough as hell) sometimes waggling the throttle helps it "pick up" the rest, but je regret sometimes it makes it worse!
Good luck and lets hope someone who knows about that which they talk can offer something more consice!
Fly low, fly fast, speak to no one