REFLECTOR: Franklin Paranoia?

[Hiroo Umeno]

Between the last weekend and today, so far, N21HV has about 7 hours flight time.  In these hours, I have come to a few "headscratchers" I wanted to get the forum's opinions on concerning the operation of the Franklin engine.

1.  Difficulty starting in the morning.  It seems to me that compared to the Lycomings I have flown in the past, my plane is much harder to start cold.  Steven Murphree gave me a few tips in doing this but I am not quite doing it right.  The procedure I use is the following.
*       Mixture - Rich
*       Mags - Both
*       Boost pump - On
*       Throttle - Pump 2 strokes, then open 1/4"
*       Starter - Crank
Well, this morning, I just about ran the battery dead before I finally got it started.  I suppose I need a bit more practice.  I would appreciate any tips you may have.

2.  In flight, sometimes, it feels like the engine "skips a beat" sometime.  As far as the parameters go (RPMs, temps, pressures, etc) it does not seem to indicate any issues but it does not have the "well oiled sewing machine" feel I would like from an airplane engine.  The engine is fresh overhaul and literally has the same number of hours as the airframe (7 hours).  Is this something I should expect from a fresh engine?  This also seems to happen on ground ops as well.  One of my to-do is to pull the plugs and check for signs of fouling.

3.  When I am flying with the speed brake down (approaches), the carburator temp goes up fairly rapidly.  I have seen temps as high as 128 degrees and above (that is where the instrument "pegs").  Is this to be expected?  I am thinking that when Carb-Heat is ON, it picks up hot air around exhaust that is probably much hotter but still, thought of carb fire does scare me a bit.

4.  The engine "weeps" oil from the main seal aft of crank shaft in front of the prop.  It is not a significant amout (the engine holds oil fairly well) but after an hour or so of flight, we see some blackish splatter marks on the cowl surrounding the area and a small amount of blackish oil smear near the seal.  The breather is not blocked as we get a lot of splatter from there (greasy props!) so I don't think the case is over-pressured.

I am new to the plane and the powerplant so perhaps I am more paranoid than I should be but I spend much of today's flight watching the engine monitor looking for first signs of trouble staying low and close to the airport.

Hiroo

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