After prepping the airplane all week for the first engine start, our tech counselor, Seth Hancock, came over with his pre-oil rig to pre-preoil the engine. I had six quarts in the engine, so we added another quart after removing a 3/16" allen plug from the engine just behind the spinner. Seth's homemade pre-oiler (a dc electric motor with hoses) was connected to my spare battery and it took only 45 seconds to pump the oil into galleries and oil filter. I then replaced the plug and pulled the airplane out of the hangar into a cool north wind.
I started on the left impulse mag. The Dynon 180 showed good oil pressure while the engine raced and I retarded the throttle. There was no tach reading until I realized that the P-Mag test switch was off. The Dynon tachometer is wired to the P-Mag. I shut it down and then started with the P-Mag and it ran much smoother after leaning about an inch on the mixture. I let it warm up at 1200 rpm and then ran it up to 1700 rpm and did a mag check. Both mags dropped the same, 140 rpm. It was a great feeling that I must have wired it correctly!!
Tech counselor helping with engine pre-oil.
Pulling airplane out of hangar into the north wind.
