REFLECTOR: Franklin Paranoia?

[Laurence Coen]

Hiroo,

I have found my Franklin to be the easiest to start of anything I have had 
experience with.  It starts with one turn or less.  It almost always fires 
on the second compression.  I have a primer system that uses a solenoid 
valve to inject fuel into the center primer ports on the intake manifold. 
The first start of the day I use a 2 second prime at summer temp.  Below 50 
F it's about 5 seconds.  Then it's throttle cracked, mixture rich, mags on 
both and crank.  With a hot engine, no prime.  I have strong feelings about 
pumping an up-draft carburetor to prime an engine.  I think it's a fire 
waiting to happen.  From the rest of your email, I definitely think you have 
fouled plugs.  I have found that the Franklin will load up the plugs at idle 
very quickly.  Once I get start I run the engine at 1100 RPM and lean for 
max RPM.  I leave it this way for ground operations and go rich for run-up 
and take-off.  I also lean on landing after I turn off the runway.  I also 
lean in cruise (75% or less) at all altitudes.  My engine is not a rebuilt 
but factory new and runs strong and smooth.  I have no idea of what a 220 HP 
sewing machine should sound like.  On the issue of oil from the breather I 
would suggest that you run your oil level halfway between the max and 
minimum marks + 1 quart.  Any higher than that and it starts blowing out the 
breather.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Hiroo Umeno
  To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
  Sent: Sunday, September 03, 2006 12:46 AM
  Subject: REFLECTOR: Franklin Paranoia?


  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.
    a.. Mixture - Rich
    b.. Mags - Both
    c.. Boost pump - On
    d.. Throttle - Pump 2 strokes, then open 1/4"
    e.. 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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