Hello,

Is anyone else now operating on a reduced fuel load due to Thanksgiving excesses, yikes

Does anyone have operational knowledge on the functional value of the SR-8A Engine Monitor I'm collecting various bits & pieces to assist with the health and welfare of my motor.

Cheers,

Mapleflt wrote: Is anyone else now operate on a reduced fuel load due to Thanksgiving excesses, yikes

Not yet, but the day is not over.


Going up to the outpost camp this afternoon to take a dock out while the water is still soft. Float fun is about to come to a halt, 15-25 cm of snow forecast tomorrow, at about this time last year we got a big dump and it did not melt off until April.

Steve

*burp*. Yup... Happy Thanksgiving guys.

David

Clearly I need to craft better titles for my quires , that said I'll be on "half rations" for the next week at least !!!!

I was fine after the meal, but a slice of pumpkin pie followed by a slice of Pecan put me into the discomfort zone! Happy Thanksgiving!

Did I miss a six weeks somewhere???

Anyway, regarding the SR-8A:

EI makes a great product, and I personally think that engine monitors are worth their weight in hundred dollar bills for keeping an engine running in the happy zone. Once you have one you'll wonder what you did without one... Look out the window, most likely.

While the cost increases significantly, a engine monitor that shows all temperatures at the same time in a graph like the UGB 16, rather than having to scroll through each cylinder, is really worth it. But if the 8A is all that's in the budget, GET IT.

There's a camp of people who don't believe engine monitors are needed on small engines, and they're entitled to that opinion. I don't agree. You can't adjust what you can't measure, and relying on crude measurements and "operational guidelines" is ridiculous when there's precision instruments available.

Here's some of the things my engine monitor tells me that I wouldn't know without it:

1: For starters, I can tell more by looking at my engine monitor before take off than the standard run-up will ever tell me about the health of the engine. It's not the exact numbers...it's knowing what the numbers looked like before, and if they look different today then something is not right. That's really comforting when you're at the end of a short strip high in the mountains with nothing but trees for a emergency landing.

2: If I lean for take off and use full throttle, my #3 cylinder goes nuclear. It will quickly go over 400 degrees and climbing, while the rest of the cylinders are in the low 300's. If I close the throttle just enough to close the enrichment valve, #3 cools immediately. At high DA takeoff's I don't even use full throttle...I know the spot at which the enrichment valve doesn't engage, and that's as far as I push in the black knob if the red knob is pulled out.

3: Once I'm clear of the trees and have a little breathing room I can enrich the mixture and open the enrichment valve if I need to cool the cylinders. There's no guessing about whether things are getting too warm, or waiting for the oil temperature to tell you that one of your jugs is about to come off because it's 500 degrees and climbing. Thats where having all the information at once is nice...a surprising amount can happen outside the cockpit while you look at the instrument and wait for each cylinder to display...

4: I know that the ideal temperature for my EGT's is between 1290 and 1310. I realize that this is not the actual temperature, as there's too much inaccuracy in the probe location, instillation, etc., but from experience I know that with that temperature on the monitor, my spark plugs don't lead up, or burn.

5: My engine monitor not only tells me which cylinders are getting too hot, but which ones are getting too COOL, which can be even worse. A cylinder running too cool gets lead deposit build up on the valves. That lead deposit acts as a insulator between the valve and the valve seat, reducing the thermal transfer from the valve to the valve seat when the valve is closed. Since valves cool in large part by transferring heat to the valve seat, that lead deposit, created by running too cool, will lead to burnt valves.

So I have throttle and RPM combinations that I choose for various altitudes which keep all the cylinders at similar EGT's, and that allows me to lean to the point where no cylinder is too hot or too cool. Without the engine monitor, I'd be overheating some cylinders and running other cylinders too cool. Ironically, the cylinders that run too cool would be the ones most likely to have burnt valves.

6: My engine monitor also tells me how affective my oil cooler is. I have one oil temp probe before the cooler, and one probe in the sump. A quick glance tells me when it's time to start blocking off the vent to the oil cooler, or unblock it as the case may be.

7: My engine monitor also tells me the carb temp, so I don't have to use carb heat prophylactically, but only when I know I need it. That keeps unfiltered air from running through my engine unnecessarily.

In addition to these specific examples, I can tell by looking at my monitor whether my engine is running like it did yesterday, last month, or last year. I can instantly see if something has changed. It's like being able to take the blood pressure of your engine.

All in all I think an engine monitor is the single most important instrument you can put in your panel. I'd never own another airplane that doesn't have one.

Hammer wrote:….2: If I lean for take off and use full throttle, my #3 cylinder goes nuclear. It will quickly go over 400 degrees and climbing, while the rest of the cylinders are in the low 300's. If I close the throttle just enough to close the enrichment valve, #3 cools immediately.....

Interesting.
I thought the purpose of the enrichment jet was to supply enough (extra) fuel at full throttle to keep cylinders from overheating.

hotrod180 wrote:

Hammer wrote:….2: If I lean for take off and use full throttle, my #3 cylinder goes nuclear. It will quickly go over 400 degrees and climbing, while the rest of the cylinders are in the low 300's. If I close the throttle just enough to close the enrichment valve, #3 cools immediately.....

Interesting.
I thought the purpose of the enrichment jet was to supply enough (extra) fuel at full throttle to keep cylinders from overheating.

That is the purpose, but it only works at full rich mixture.

Fantastic Hammer, thanks for the intel I'm sold