Requesting Pireps on Pmag

[pilotkms]

1,122 hours as of today. I like the connectors, no ferrules. Have done the 100hr inspection 10 times. EZ for me. Sent both in for the Total Checkup last month during my CI, same as my 6 yr Hartzell Prop overhaul. They changed the bearings in both. Said my heat indicator had turned slightly gray and to check my cooling ducts. I increased both hoses from 5/8” to 1”. EZ mod.

[tass]

Originally Posted by MacCool

On my airplane, the blast tubes are Van's 3/4 inch corrugated tubing. Each tube comes out of the back of the plenum and is aimed at the pmag. 450 hours, and the heat stickers are still white.


..

Thank you!

I have a picture from under the cowling I took a little while ago, and it looks like I already have these pointed at the mags - I forgot all about it I'll have to measure them to make sure they're the right size, and potentially run safety wire through them as suggested by Paul.

[MacCool]

Originally Posted by tass

Thank you!

I have a picture from under the cowling I took a little while ago, and it looks like I already have these pointed at the mags - I forgot all about it I'll have to measure them to make sure they're the right size, and potentially run safety wire through them as suggested by Paul.

Paul's idea is clever. Mine are just held in place with Adele clamps, which also seems to work just fine.

I recently had an issue that I thought might be ignition but burned out to be fuel-related. I called Emag hoping to chat about it, and unlike some customer service departments at some companies, the guy I spoke with at Emag we friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. He was definitely not in a rush to get me off the phone. Refreshing and very helpful. Totally in line with their reputation.

[rv8ch]

Originally Posted by tass

Thank you!

I have a picture from under the cowling I took a little while ago, and it looks like I already have these pointed at the mags - I forgot all about it I'll have to measure them to make sure they're the right size, and potentially run safety wire through them as suggested by Paul.

Hi Tass, has that engine ever flown? Sure looks clean. One question - what is that hard line with the loop at the bottom of the picture? Primer?

[ronrapp]

Originally Posted by Carl Froehlich

I know of one RV-8 that started life with dual Lightspeed igntions. One died early on and was replaced with a pMag - and it seemed to run just fine with one of each. His plan is to replace the remaining Lightspeed when it dies with another pMag.

My RV-6 also has a pMag and a Lightspeed Plasma III. No issues I'm aware of.

--Ron

[DCBrown198]

I have two P-Mags on my IO-540 on my-10.

Have worked well.

One issue I did encounter is that they are surprisingly sensitive to voltage drops during start. If bus voltage drops below 10.5 volts or so they may not throw a spark.

My airplane was wired to Van's typical design with bus power coming from battery side of start contactor. First flights were done with two new main batteries and I had no issues. After a while, the batteries were not quite 100% and my bus voltage was falling below the threshold during start. Thought I had fuel servo issues...but no, it was the ignition.

Brad advised that -10s, with rear located main batteries, pulling power from start contactor post were sometimes getting too much voltage drop between the battery(s) and starter contactor during start.

I then ran an dedicated #6 wire from battery contactor to bus panel in hopes of avoiding that main wire run voltage drop during starts. That has mostly fixed the problem.

However, I also added a plug-in direct power routing behind the instrument panel for the #1 ignition. I use a small battery pack made of 8 AA batteries. When I plug that in, it is hot wired to the ignition. When using this backup battery pack the #1 ignition is always assured of 12v during start. The battery pack has been beneficial at times.

[tass]

Originally Posted by rv8ch

Hi Tass, has that engine ever flown? Sure looks clean. One question - what is that hard line with the loop at the bottom of the picture? Primer?

It's a photo from a little while back, so maybe slightly less clean today, but I'm fairly regularly under the cowling and try not to let too much gunk accumulate (but boy oil changes with that screen housing make that difficult!)

The hard line goes to the firewall, then has a tube to a MAP sensor.

[FlyFastJP]

I had a single pmag and the EI commander on my -4 for a couple years with zero issues. When I upgraded to 10:1 pistons, I added another pmag. About 20 minutes into break in flight, engine intermittently wanted to come out of the plane. Being above my airport, I shut her down and deadsticked it in.

After a couple hours of trying to figure out what I did wrong on the engine, I turned to ignition. EI commander showed the new pmag was intermittently firing at 43 BTDC. I called Brad and discussed. We both agreed that it was near impossible for that to happen. He took them both back to diagnose and upgrade. He could find no fault.

Brad is a great guy to deal with. I have no issues with him or pmags. But without a problem or explanation found, it rattled me enough to change ignition type. I immediately sold them both and bought the dual CPI-2 with battery backup.

[gmcjetpilot]

Originally Posted by prkaye

I have a lightspeed ingition on my right side and a Slick mag on the left. After the mag was overhauled as part of an IRAN, the engine seems to be running a bit rough when firing on just the mag (it runs beautifully on the lightspeed alone). Also, yesterday my RPM indication (which is fed from the mag's p-lead) momentarily dropped to zero when I reduced power for landing. Something seems not right. I'll keep diagnosing the mag issue, but it is making me think of making another investment and replacing it with a PMag. I'm looking for thoughts, positive or negative, on the PMag system.
1) Ease of install (for someone who has never installed a mag on an engine) - the description in the manual looks straight-foward. Is it as easy as it appears?
2) Reliability and maintenance requirements - advertised as basically maintenance-free. Is this true?
3) Responsiveness of the company for customer support?
4) Will the PMag play well with having the Lightspeed on the other side? Thinking that these systems will have different curves in terms of how they adjust timing at different power settings. Could this be an issue?
Thanks for any thoughts!

See My Post in this section called E-Mag Customer Service is Awesome. I sent my two P-Mags out for upgrade... above and beyond service.