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Paul.
I know the felling of having the engine just stop in mid
flight. My coupe did this for seventeen years with the previous owner
and then me. Carb heat always brought it back to life. I went through
the carb numerous times, checked fuel flow, installed a carb temp gauge,
added extra warm air to the intake [only in Canada] and sevaral other
things that I won't mention here, and it still conked out at will.
Finally I found the problem. It was so simple I had overlooked it. My
gascolator is mounted on the firewall near the bottom. The fuel hose
ran from the firewall, over the muffler, and down to the gascolator.
>From there it ran up to the carb near the exhaust pipe heat. It was
boiling the gas and forming a vapor lock. Now the strange thing was it
would only do it if I backed the throttle back to 2300 RPM or less.
The lowwer the RPM the more the engine died out. This was because at
low settings, the carb bowl would fill up and the needle valve would
shut off the flow, leaving the fuel in the line much longer, giving it
time to heat up and vapor lock. It would give no warning, just come
back to idle. Applying carb heat would bring the power back every time.
This is because carb heat does enrichen things and somwhat acts as a
choke, drawing fuel through, getting the flow going again. To show how
effective the carb heat is, on the ground, run the engine up to say
2000RPM and pull the lean mix out. Now pull the carb heat on as the
engine starts to die. With the heat on the engine picks up to near
normal speed for the throttle setting. I certainly could be wrong, but
you may have the same problem. The fix I did on mine has completely
eliminated the problem!!! Here's the scuzzy----- First make SURE
all your fuel lines run up and down hill with NO high spots that can
trap air in the line. I went to a local building supply store and got a
2" wide roll of 1/8" thick insulating tape used for hot water lines. It
is sticky on one side and has silver foil on the other. Wrap the line
from end to end.[Twice if you feel better about it] I then took heavy
Reanolds Wrap foil. Fold it four layers thick to a strip about 2" wide.
Crinkle it up before folding to give it more insulating air space. Now
wrap that around the hose over the foam tape. By now your fuel line is
about 11/2" in dia. Now secure the foil by wrapping from end to end with
fine locking wire. This may look a bit odd but personally I don't care
if it saves my life!! This has worked flawlessly for me for some time
now and I finally feel much more relaxed flying, without the threat of
becoming a glider, something the coupe doesn't do well. Take a close
look at your fuel line routing and you may find the problem. Hope this
helps. Let us know what you find.
Jon Page.
FLAK MAGNET 415-C
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