Just prior to Christmas I did one final flight before downing the a/c to pull the Catto and return it to CA for a refurbishment. I flew up to Wichita, KS to the restaurant on Stearman Field, and when the engine would not start. Selected the "B" computer and it fired right up and ran smoothly, so brought it home and pulled the prop as planned and began searching for a computer "fix". A rotary buddy happened to have a Tracy Crook "EC-2" set up for the Renesis, so I purchased and installed that, and was finally back to flying in April, until a loss of power incident set me back again. I had forgotten that each EC-2 was set up specially for the type of igniters / coils as specified by the customer, and the original computer used Mazda Renesis coils, while the new computer was set up with increased dwell to support GM LS-1s. After six hours of operations, I was ten miles south of the field when power dropped from 5400 rpm to only 4,000 at WOT. That was just enough to maintain level flight or descend about 50 fpm, so I made to home base easily, and immediately did a compression check. Compression which had been in the upper 70's to upper 80's was only in the 50-60 psi range, so determined to crack the engine open and replace seals and springs, etc. I also checked the coils, and discovered that two showed signs of internal heat damage with "bubbled" plastic; and father research reminded me that I was using the wrong coils! My previous RV-9A project with an '86 RX-7 (13B) engine was issuing in the corner of the hanger, and was set up for LS-1 coils, so it was a fairly simple task to make a new bracket and install them on the Renesis. I hope to finish the engine rebuild / "re-stacking" in a another two weeks and have it flying again by the end of July... TBD.
