Mark Glad to hear that you are back up flying and more dependable than before. Your experience is something that I brought up some time ago, and I hope did not go unnoticed. Especially at altitude, ALL ENGINES NEED SOME HEAT. This is because the fuel and air will separate if the mix is too cold and the fuel will begin collecting in places of lower air flow, by condensing on the walls, and then be swept into the next cylinder during its intake stroke. Races cars run into this alot when running intakes that have an air space under the carb where engine heat cannot warm the intake. The incoming air is just too cold, then it accelerates in the carb throat, and then no heat in the intake, so it never properly mixes. This leads to a rich then lean surge and cut out. A look at Lycoming and Continental engines shows their intake runners run THROUGH the oil pan to get heated air by picking up engine heat from the oil. Then look at the Corvair engine intakes: runners that never touch the engine except by supports. Same with alot of VW guys. Dan's plane will probably now not have that problem because he will have much shorter runners and get heat from the engine by sitting on top of it. Bill Clapp reports the least amount of mixture problems from what I have read here, and he draws air from inside the cowling all the time.
Ram air is great for wide open throttle for max power. But I would bet for OUR applications, heat applied to the mix will give much better fuel economy and use, and overall make our flying safer and more reliable. JMHO.... Colin Rainey brokerpi...@bellsouth.net
