Today was a major milestone – the engine ran for the first time! My friend Donnie met me at the airport at 7am to help advise and provide a second set of eyes on the process. It was early enough to be very quiet, allowing us to focus. After a few preparatory steps, we pulled the airplane out onto the taxi way and started the test. I had a test card written that covered everything I wanted to test – engine instruments, ignition, prop governor, alternator etc.
Everything performed completely as expected, and I was very happy and relieved to complete the test successfully. After verifying everything engine-related, I also took the chance to test the brakes. Donnie removed the chocks and I rolled forward a couple of feet and confirmed the brakes worked well.
After shutdown, I did find an oil leak. I traced it back to a loose oil hose fitting, and was able to torque it up and resolve the issue. It was one of the oil lines connecting the oil cooler, and I must have just plain forgotten to torque it. I added torque seal and checked all the other fluid fittings on and around the engine while I was at it.
The engine ran well. I let it idle for several minutes until the oil temperature reached 100 degrees F, then performed a run-up by slowly increasing RPM to 1800. That’s where I checked the mags, cycled the prop, and double-checked the alternator output. I collected the engine data from the G3X system and uploaded into an analysis tool on my laptop. There was nothing that looked out of the ordinary to my untrained-eye.
