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Starduster
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The Road Back
All the parts are in and Jayson's cleared his decks enough to start putting this back together. Doesn't look like much to start... like a scrawny, chrome Christmas tree... but it's begun! We only have a day because Jayson is flying for the next few days, but it will give us a chance to measure everything out and move on. Well ok... our schedules got way messed up and we slipped into September before we got back on it, but the engine looks great and is ready to put back on the airplane.
Man! I can't believe how many hoses and wires connect to this motor. But I found a connection for every one!.. just hope they were the right ones. Jayson hates tie-wraps so I had to use Adel clamps on everything... even things that weren't part of the engine reassembly! He's got be redoing clamps inside the fuselage too. Well, the Plenum Box is taking forever!!... Between Jayson's schedule and mine we get darned little time. Very frustrating, but we can clearly see how good it's going to be and it sure looks good! Meanwhile, I'm still Adel clamping everything I can find and working on the nose bowl.
Kade fabricated a new bracket for the oil cooler that replaced the brace between the generator and engine case. We wanted to support both top and bottom of the oil cooler, but when we were done, I think you could probably tow the airplane with the bracket! Oh well, at least its not going to fall off! Oil Pressure!! Well, we find ourselves at the 28th of October and this is a small milestone day! Everything is buttoned up on the engine and filled with mineral oil so I cranked the engine over with the bottom plugs out for about 10 seconds... nothing. After letting the starter rest a minute, I hit it again and after about 8 seconds, the oil pressure needle rose nicely to 60 pounds and nothing squirted out! I did this a few times to keep oil in the system. One would hope an engine start is in the very near future! It's Alive!!November 12, 2004 and today we started the engine for the first time!! One blade and the thing fired right off... no sputtering, no popping, no coughing... idled about 900 rpm as smooth as butter! I had the seat out for the annual so I was resting directly on the frame and not a bit of vibration. We were amazed at how easy it started and how well it ran. Tachometer reads 555.45... I'll have to remember that! We had put a couple of washers behind the spring to get the oil pressure up but it was running about 95 pounds so I think we'll take those back out. Even so, nothing squirted out... except when Jayson asked me to cycle the prop... he had taken the b-nut off the oil feed line to the prop to take the baffles off and forgot to put it back on. So it was completely disconnected. Ok, that was fun. After we cleaned off the oil, we started it again and it ran as well as the first time. Still no leaks! I was so damned happy, all I could do was sit in the cockpit and grin! So far the only thing that wasn't working was the oil temperature. It was pegging itself as far to hot as it would go. Kade and I got out the multimeter and started searching. We finally figured out that there was a broken wire inside the connector that screws on to the back of the sending unit. A little solder, some heat shrink, and things we're working again. Interesting to note that when the connection is broken, the gage pegs out at max rather than to zero. Something to remember. Ok... so now I'm really anxious to finish the Plenum Box and Nose Bowl! Jayson is a perfectionist with this thing and there's no doubt this will be the best Plenum Box ever constructed but it's driving me crazy having to wait! Oh well, it's going to be spectacular when its done. I'll wait.
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Well, what a wonderful day this is!...
August 3, 2004. Time to start putting things
all back together. Work's been keeping me way to busy. We
could have done this a little quicker had I not had quite so much going
on. Good thing is, lots of great customers lined up. A little luck
and we'll own the market... otherwise I'll be looking for work and this build
will have been for someone else. For any of you interested in what we
do... 
