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Electronic Ignition

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Old 30th Jul 2013, 12:15
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Electronic Ignition

I was just having a look at Electroairs website. They claim that their electronic ignition system where you only replace 1 magneto with their solid state unit has some significant fuel consumption savings. They claim an O-360 fitted with their system will go from 11.2gph to 9gph.

Has anyone had any experience with Electroairs system, or others that are on the market. Do you get the advertised savings?
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Old 30th Jul 2013, 22:18
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Ask yourself ... how?

20% fuel saving. Really?
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Old 30th Jul 2013, 22:35
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The website lists 3 CAFE reports. The Cafe foundation does good work. But if you read the reports, they are only suggesting that the benefits occur at circa 10,000ft and above with "very lean mixtures".

Lean mixtures are harder to ingnite, so I presume that the CDI unit shows a benefit when magnetos are on the brink of lean misfire.

Basically this is $3,500 to largely do the same as a $70 Jaycar CDI kit. I think I'd put the money into GAMI injectors instead.

Come in Jaba......
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Old 30th Jul 2013, 23:38
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Dear me......Akro you should know better. I cant teach two and a half days of engine management on an internet forum in one post. If we could, we would!

Simply this, you can run further LOP by advancing ignition, however its not all that simple. But yes you can gain a benefit by doing so. The catch is did you buy a Bonanza to fly at C172 speeds?

There is another point here, he position of Theta PP, that is ALL that matters, be it magneto or EI. Problem is if the advance is too much you start wasting HP. And on a constant RPM constant load engine there is no gain apart from higher CHT from going too far.

Next downside is this, unlike a car which runs at varying RPM all the time, a constant speed engine like a plane with a VERY accurate EI, gives you a far more accurate ThetaPP, now this might sound good. I have no data to support my next statement, but smarter folk than me question whether this is actually a good thing for longevity, and that may be why PRISM has a lot of variability in its spark delivery... Just sayin' It also has the ability to kill off any detonation in just that one cylinder, so they all operate independent of each other. But it is not on the market yet so lets not get carried away.

Seems the humble old magneto still has some value after all.

Now a GOOD magneto/Leads/Plugs is a very reliable thing. The majority of folk do not know they have sub-standard performance from the ignition systems, nor do their LAME's either. I give you a guess what I fly behind, and believe me the money would not stop me changing, if there was an advantage.

One last thing, on an O360, with a fixed pitch prop and an EI.....running LOP is possible, but the data bounces around all over the place as a result, and you should try troubleshooting when the data has no steady baseline
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Old 31st Jul 2013, 00:12
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Gee Jabba ya slippin' mate....took ya several hrs to find this thread

I guess with the cost of fuel going higher & higher than the machines that use it everyone is looking at ways of reducing that cost.

It's quite a luxury to own/operate a plane these days & fuel can only be leaned out so much:-)

If anyone knows where to find savings on the hydrocarbon products we use in flying machines then good 'ole uncle Jabba will know
You can always "lean" on jabba

Wmk2
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Old 31st Jul 2013, 05:48
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One engine is half the burn Wally


hehehehe
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Old 31st Jul 2013, 07:35
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Remember the old saying... " more than a mouthful is wasted" ? Its a bit the same with spark strength. Unless there is a lean misfire issue, I reckon you'd be better off putting money into the mixture side.
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Old 31st Jul 2013, 12:25
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Hey jabba makes no diff buddy one or two engines, you could have two donks of 4cyl's each or one big donk 8 cyl's (Lyc 720) all the cyl's need leaning outto get better fuel econ it's just that in a twin they are spread move evenly across the airframe & can be used separately to some degree to save yr raggity ass


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