To make a long story short, I have this T500, I got three runs on it when I first got it, then it had a hard spot in it when turned over, the electric starter wouldnt even turn it over.. So, I pulled it all and sent it in to the factory...

It got upgraded to the new T03 version of the ECU with a failsafe, and they said nothing was wrong with the motor, so, I put it back in, drive 2hrs to the field, tried to start it a few times, burned glow plugs every start no matter what the setting was in the GSU, belched alot of fire, then it turned over hard again, was hard to turn by hand.. So, I pulled it all and sent it in to the factory again...

Ok, so today, took the engine out to the field, tried to start it again, lit off the powermax, would not tranfer to the kero, burned another plug, put in new plug, changed glow setting, wouldnt light powermax burned the plug, put in another plug, lit off the powermax, shot alot of fire, shut down again, toasted my last plug..


SO, what do I do with this thing? If anyone has some idea's Id love to hear them, after spending $100 in shipping to the factory and glow plugs over the last month Im getting burned out on this thing.. And with JOW a few weeks away, Id love to be able to fly this plane there!

HELP, Thanks in advance!
J

Hi John. Call me at 512-259-9232 and I will try to help you.

What glow plugs are u using anyway ? I use several types of plugs with success, Rossi R 8 ( very expensive) , Mccoy MC9 ( slightly less expensive) , K&B hp ( less expensive still) and Fox 2volt ( least expensive of all). The rossi and the fox plug can take a setting of about 50 without blowing, the others need to be set at about 60. The first thing i would do is a glow plug test and set. I do this by removing the plug from the engine and dissconesting the gas solenoid or dont put any powermax in the cylinder. Then you set the glow plug to a setting that you know wont burn out the plug, maybe 55 for the Rossi and fox and 65 or so for the others. Then while holding the plug in your hand hit the start button and watch to see how bright it glows. It needs to be extremly bright but obvously not so bright that it blows the plug. U can experiment with some old cheap or used plugs. Remember the lower the glow plug number the HIGHER the voltage to the plug. Its kind of oppostie of what you might expect. When you have it set to max brightenss or very near max without burning up the plugs reinstall in the engine and try to light the powermax only with the kero turned off or dissconected. You need to find the right "GAS" setting to where it will lite consistantly. I find that 40 to 50 seems to work for most engines. Again, remember this number is also backwards, the smaller the number the greater the powermax. The engine whould be able to reach about 15,000 Rpm give or take, on powermax only. It will sustain this for about 15 to 20 seconds untill it has a motor timeout. There shouldnt be much flame on powermax only. Sometimes i see some but not alot. If you have a lot of flame you probly have to much powermax and need to reduce it ( raise the number by 5 or 10 and retry). Once you ge *** to where it consistanly lites the powermax without flame or destrying your glow plugs your ready to introduce kero. For starters I would suggest a setting of about 85 plus or minus 5. This should give a good "ramp" without flame or with a minimal amount. I hope this helps. One other thing to check is the tightness of all the screws around the tailcone, we found out just today that if all or most of them are loose the engine wont start properly. All my experince is with 3 differnt Ram 500's. I think the ECUs use the same numbers for the different paramaters. I hope this helps. I just rembered one other thing that may help glow plug life. After you pull the element out of the plug put it on a glow driver for a few seconds, supposedly this anneals (spelling ?) the element and makes it less likley to burn out. You can call me at 817 465-6656 if you need more help. By the way, I'd reccomend doing all of the above on a test stand and at home. I'd hate to see you do any damage to your airplane from flames untill you get it sorted out. I do most of my test runs at home on a test stand. I've never had a neigbor complain, I only go to full power for a couple of seconds if I go to full at all. For your purposes you just need to get it to the running idle stage which isn that loud.

Turn, Thanks for the help, Ill try that all out!

Glow plugs Ive used MC9's, and anything comparable, once I toasted all those I went with everything I had in the flight box still with no luck, glow setting was 70 as it came from the factory yet still burned them. Gas setting was around 70 too if I remember correctly.. Ill check and reset them this evening maybe to figure it out.

Thanks so much!

I don't know if this helps, but some of the RAM500 ECUs had the glow value reversed...you may be turning UP the value when you THINK you are turning it down.

With the T03 software the glow parameter works in reverse, a higher number is less voltage. With my Ram 500 and MC9 plugs I've found that 60 works best. It lights off fine at 55 but the glow plugs don't last very long. At 65 it won't always light off the Powermax.

The Gas Adjust setting should be 10 to 15 less than the ambient temperature. That parameter also works in reverse, a higher number is less Powermax. With that it lights off fine but will ramp up automatically only about half of the time. The secret is to keep your Powermax bottle connected and give it an extra shot after it's been running a few seconds.

The Start PW setting will vary depending on your set up. Increase the setting in increments of 5 until you start to notice some yellow flames coming out the back, then back off. I use 115, but my pump is getting old. A newer pump should need a lower number. Somewhere around 90 should work.

Even with optimum settings mine will start automatically about half the time. Here's what I do to get reliable starts every time:
Make sure your ECU battery is fully charged.
Keep the Powermax bottle connected.
Carefully watch the temperature on the data terminal during the start sequence.
If the temp. starts to drop off after ignition give it a shot of Powermax.
After it enters Ramp mode keep watching the temp. If it starts to drop off give it another shot of Powermax.

These engines seem to like a lot of Powermax. Some have good luck using a larger onboard gas canister (like the Jetcat one). Download "Tony's Tips" off of the JPO website, he has lots of good tips for the Ram (or FTE) 500.

Good luck,
Joe

Thanks, I didnt have time to play with it yesterday, hope tonight.

Weird thing is it seems to run fine in florida at the factory, but the settings do nothing but burn plugs and shoot fire here. Ill tinker more...

Thanks!

Whats your elevation there ?

100' above sea level

well, elevation is obviously not your problem. I thought maybe you were at some high elevation. Whats the ambient temp and what are your settings for glow, propane and kerosene. Your sure your battery voltage is good ? Best results seem to occur with voltages above 7.3 or 7.4. Did you check the tighness of the screws on the back of the engine ? Feel free to give me a call next time your ready to tinker with it. 817 465-6656 or 817 874-3734 cell.