ENGINE WORK  March, 2008

Mar 15 - After initially blaming Allan Christer's crash on the replacement ECU Allan had to buy because he was getting nowhere with the one supplied by Eggenfellner, Eggenfellner now attributes the crash to a diode failure, and emphasized that diode bridges are not recommended.  Because Allan's plane burned after the crash, no one knows how Jan arrived at the diode bridge as the culprit.  As long as Eggenfellner can lay the blame on someone else, he's happy. 

Apparently, the new H6s with either Eggenfellner (Ross Farnham-?) ECU or Robert Paisley ECU have a separate 20 amp circuit for coils and injectors.  Jan insisted that everyone must not use diodes for battery isolation.  I asked a couple times if this 20a circuit was pertinent to STi engines.  According to the other guys, it apparently is not.  Finally managed to pry some info about it from Jan & he said it's not pertinent to STi engines.  Seems odd that the STi needs 5a for the ECU (and coils & injectors), and the H6/newer ECU requires 5a for the ECU and 20a for the coils and injectors.  Oh well - I had put mine on a 15a circuit anyway, just to match the 16ga wire that came from Eggenfellner for ECU power.

Mar 16 - Received new nose gear leg fork from Van's while I was gone on vacation.  Continued to crank on the gear leg die awhile.  Threading the leg in-place had started off quite easy, but it has gotten tougher with every turn.  I'm doing everything I can to make it as smooth as possible; turning in small increments, lots of backing up, lots of back-and-forth, lots of lubricant, quite frequent blowing away of chips & re-lubricating.  Measured new fork, and found I need about 1/4" more threads.  After lots of grunting, I ended up with just 1/8" to go.  Then the die was so tight, I broke the handle off the die holder, and the die is looking a bit worn out, so I quit for the night.  3.0 hr

Mar 17 - I ordered a new die from MSC, but they said it's backordered until August.  Found a US manufacturer in Three Rivers, MA (F&D Tool), and ordered a new HS steel adjustable die from them.

Mar 20 - quick service from F&D Tool - got my new die and die stock.  Used new die on threads.  It worked great.  Even adjusted all the way out, it cut more into the threads I'd already done, so no more binding - the die turned quite freely, as it should.  Cut threads to full length, then adjusted die and trimmed at full depth.  The nut goes on freely all the way now.  1.75 hr

  Here is the nose gear leg, all threaded, with an additional inch of threads cut into it.  I'll use a cutoff wheel to remove the bottom inch (be sure have a die already on the leg when cutting, so you can clean the threads up by simply removing the die).  If you don't do that, you'll probably have a hard time getting anything to thread onto the cut leg.

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