During the very first start-up Tom was inspecting the engine and noticed that the intake manifold hose was being crushed by suction primarily on cylinder #2, but all of them were affected. This was unacceptable and must be addressed, I did some trouble shooting with communication with Safari on he following start-ups, but it became clear that the hoses would need to be replaced with pipe. Safari claimed that my helicopter was the only one with this issue, but I’m suspect because everything is standard, and honestly, I wouldn’t have even known it was happening unless Tom found it because it nothing you can see from the pilot’s seat. It may be a more widespread issue.
Safari welded some pipe for me and sent them out for me to size for each individual cylinder. The angles and lengths are all very different, and I’m trying to get them as close as possible to close the gap and minimize the hose. I also found straight reduction 4-ply turbo hose to use to connect everything together. I need to go from 2’ to 1.75” pipe. I also went with new heavy duty T-bolt clamps designed for turbo intake hose. The old worm drive clamps cut and damage the silicon hose.
Tommy is powder coating them red for me right now.
