So, the euphoria of starting my engine and taxiing around was quickly dampened as I found my engine was running poorly and not delivering full power. I determined that there were two issues. Firstly, my LightSpeed electronic ignition system was faulty – the side supplying to spark to cylinders 3/4 was giving out very weak spark. Its been sent back to Klaus at LSE. I heard from him last week – he has found and corrected the problem. The other more minor issues I had with my LSE box was that it was not putting out a tach signal and the ignition disable (i.e. like a p-lead on a magneto) was not working. These were options that the previous owner had opted not to get, so Klaus is retrofitting my box with them. The other and more serious engine issue was very low compression. My engine sat for 2yrs in humid MA since it last ran. I thought I had stored it well, but I now realize I did not protect the most vulnerable parts – the heads. I was pumping dry air into the crank case (via the oil breather, out the dipstick) and did nothing to protect the heads/upper cylinders (where the damaging corrosion happens). When I did a leak-down test, all the compression was blowing past the intake valves.
Time for a top-end rebuild. It turns out there is a guy a couple towns over (Aircraft Cylinder Repair in Whitnsville, MA) who rebuilds cylinders for most of the local A&P’s. So, I pulled my engine of the plane and hauled it back home to my shop. I pulled off the cylinders. Pretty easy until you get to removing the piston pins. I had to fabricate a pin press, but still had to heat them up and give them a good whack to get them out (I think I buggered one). Anyway, they’re out now and off to the rebuilder. He figured it would be 2-3 weeks, so I’ll be twiddling my thumbs for a little while.
Here’s a few pics of the disassembled engine:
