Red-Rx7 Senior Heliman Location: Olathe, KS - USA
| I got her started!
I had some issues with the tempered fan nut (as explained before); in which I finally got that resolved. It took me about 20 minutes to get a decent runout on the engine fan of .004". After putting everything back together, I went outside and it started up.
I have the needle pretty rich, as this is the first time anything has ever been started before. I never flew it, but just let it idle on the ground and going through different ranges of the engine RPM.
As you can see in the picture of the glowplug, the black gunk started building up on it all from one tank. I would have reduced the needle some, but the engine was borderline cold/warm. It just seemed right for the break-in period.

Here are two short video clips (large, have a good connection) of the Pantera spooling up. Please note a few things that I would like some feedback on from anyone:
1) Ground Shakes. It was pretty bad, but I was thinking it would be attributed to the break-in of the engine. Since the engine is running rough with all that fuel, I thought that could be one of the reasons.... On the second video as I started to dial the needle back 4 clicks, it seemed like it got better. Any thoughts?
Note: I do not have the tail frame support rods on. So the tail is a little wobbly.
2) Weird bearing / belt slip noise? When I start to spool it up, it has a higher-pitch squelch that sounds like a belt slipping or a bad bearing. Please watch the video with sound.
I checked the tail belt drive, and it is per instructions. Not overly tight, but enough that it is flexible that when you push the belt together they almost touch (behind the drive pulley).
Thoughts?
Video #1: http://www.corvettedyno.com/md530/f...firststart1.AVI
Video #2: http://www.corvettedyno.com/md530/f...firststart2.AVI
Final thoughts: - The multi-blade head looks sweet! - The spool-down of the blades take a long time... As you can see in the second video, when I drop the throttle I set it to idle position. Yet, the blades take a good 50-60 seconds to come to a rest! I recall this being quite a bit longer than my Raptors.. |