If you go for the semi-auto get the onboard starter. The extra weight of the starter is worth not fooling with a wand, which you propably can't use with the fod screen anyway.

Smithy, What does the "Regal" ECU look like. I tried to post pic, but for some reason I can't. Could you take a pic of the back end of your turbine to show how the "sacrificial ring" is used to balance?

Tom,
I believe the "Regal" ECU looks nearly exactly the same as the Nades, just a different label. Here's an "ordinary" pic of my turbine wheel, it looks the same on both sides, no grinding inside the sacrificial rings.

Cheers,
Smithy.

The Regal ECU is in a white plastic box and it will say regal electronics on the label.

Knobby1

You have a Nades ECU but the hand data terminal is a Regal.

Thanks fw,
I knew somebody would know for sure!

Cheers,
Smithy.

So I'm assuming mine is Nades Au-545. Even though it say's in big bold letters "Jet Joe"

Tom, I wouldn't know without at least seeing a pic of it!

Cheers,
Smithy.

If it is in a black shrink wrap it is a Nades ECU.

Smithy,

Did you ever get a thrust reading on your jj1800? I will be puting mine in a FB F-15. It should fly the crap out of it. However, I wonder how it would do in s SM F-18E. The F-18 is bigger and heavier.

Yes, my FADEC is in a black shrink tube - looks very similar to yours, except it's an AU-545. Thanks

Tom

Tom,
I have done three runs with the engine so far, all of them pretty much trouble free, I have a digital "strain guage" hooked up to the sliding platform that the engine sits on, bare in mind I am at sea level and our air is "very good" here at night time, I think at the time it had a corrected altitude of -83ft so the air is nice and dense as well as cool. For every 300ft gain in altitude you loose a considerable % of thrust, I'm not sure of the exact figures though, I'm sure somebody will be able to tell us.

I took two readings in excess of 20lbs static thrust, the first was at 114,000rpm and the reading peaked at 20.08lbs, the second run was at the full 115,000rpm and came out at 20.35lbs, these weren't from a slam accel either, just a progressive increase of throttle, the slam accel gives false peak readings in my humble opinion. Read my post on the previous page, post #1212 I think.

This engine should fly the FB F-15 very nicely indeed, I'm affraid I know nothing of the SM F-18E but if the weight is not too high, say under 23-24lbs wet, it should fly very well.

Cheers,
Smithy.

Hey Guys,
I received some small capacitors/resitors when I got the engine kit, I assume they're for "noise" suppression, am I correct in saying they should be soldered accross the +and- of the fuel pump, I haven't done this as yet but didn't detect any interference through my radio set either. Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Smithy.

Per 100 meters (385 feet) of altitude expect 1.2% loss of thrust. I am sure temp and humidity would factor in here somewhere as well.

Thanks FW, you're a champ!

Smithy.

Did you get the flight works pump? If you did won't need them the flight work pump has rf suppression built in.

No FW,
I just got the normal JJ pumps, they're not as good as the flightworks/hausel pumps but I am able to test them here at my work, we have a variable voltage pot on one of our aircraft fuel control test rigs, kinda handy! One pump seemed to work fine, no leaks, no probs with current draw and flows could be varied from barely a dribble @ ~0.8v to quite a considerable flow, up near ~850ml/min @ just 5v and was only pulling ~1.4amps. I don't know if this is normal though, but it sounded fine and didn't heat up at all.

The other pump wasn't so lucky, it required 3 amps just to start and leaked badly, I pulled it to pieces and found the small pump drive gear was pressed onto the electric motor shaft just a few thousands of an inch too far, pretty much making it lock up, I "manipulated" it and it now works nicely just like the first one, I don't think they test them before they ship them out, not a good thing but relatively easy to fix. So now I have two nicely working fuel pumps!!

Might need the capacitors then ask in the electric forum somebody there should know how to use them.

Thanks FW,
Will do as you suggest.

Smithy.

Try running the pumps in a closed loop of JetA1 for 12 hrs on a nominal 1.2v- 2.0v with a filter in order to bed the bushes in and collect any fines of the gears that might block the injectors.

Paul

my mate has 2 jet joe's they only did 4 minuites but we have worked out why....
they were runing at too cold temp... we put a cone on them which brought the temp up..
they know run beautiful and have produced another 3 lb thrust each .. not bad concidering they were 20 lb turbines

I had some minor popping at top rpm with my JJ-1800 initially, replaced the pump and it reaches top RPM without popping now. Must admitt they are a lot better than i initially gave them credit for.
it has had only about 3 hours running time only on the bench but the runs have been trouble free.
Still early days.

Hi Paul, yes i'll be doing that later today, I ran each pump on a closed loop for about an hour or so, not quite enough to bed them in nicely though. Thanks for the tip.

Cheers,
Smithy.

is it OK to cut the thermal couple to the proper length? It sticks into the tail pipe too deep - need to cut off ~1/4 inch...

Just pull it out 1/4 inch. Don't cut it.

Please don't cut the thermocouple Tom, do as Mark suggests and just adjust it, it's ok to put a slight bend in it about 1/2 way along the length to take up the extra, or mount it further up towards the front of the engine. Cutting it "will" cause it to fail.

Cheers,
Smithy.