Champ cold starts

[grattonja]

I went to fly the Champ on friday. 1946 7AC with the standard 65 horse continental. I have been taught to start it by turning fuel on, mags off. Pull the prop through maybe 4-5 times, turn the mags hot (throttle cracked throughout exercise). Pull the prop til he catches. This summer, this was infallible. This friday, temps in the 30s, no go. Wouldn't light. One of the CFIs, who had recently trained the plane but doesn't have a lot more time in it than I, suggested following this course with 4 shots of primer, and pull through again. Still not lighting the fires. Finally, said CFI came out and we both tried for a half hour to get the engine to catch, to no avail. I suspect, at some point, we flooded it, although we never saw any fuel run out.

Suggestions for cold starting a Champ? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. P.S. Cross posted at AOPA.

Jim G

 

[SkyHog]

I went to fly the Champ on friday. 1946 7AC with the standard 65 horse continental. I have been taught to start it by turning fuel on, mags off. Pull the prop through maybe 4-5 times, turn the mags hot (throttle cracked throughout exercise). Pull the prop til he catches. This summer, this was infallible. This friday, temps in the 30s, no go. Wouldn't light. One of the CFIs, who had recently trained the plane but doesn't have a lot more time in it than I, suggested following this course with 4 shots of primer, and pull through again. Still not lighting the fires. Finally, said CFI came out and we both tried for a half hour to get the engine to catch, to no avail. I suspect, at some point, we flooded it, although we never saw any fuel run out.

Suggestions for cold starting a Champ? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. P.S. Cross posted at AOPA.

Jim G

Take it with a grain of salt, as I haven't tried it yet, but one of the other owners of our Cherokee suggested this (modify to fit). Says it always works:

Cold Start

This usually works. The idea is to get the engine just a tad flooded before trying to start it.

• Mags off.
• Throttle closed.
• Mixture pulled (i.e., gas off).
• Prime 3 times.
• Set brake. Maybe chock a wheel.
• Pull prop through 6 blades. (Careful. Remember mags might not be grounded.)
• Prime 4 times.
• Crack throttle 1/2 inch or so.
• Mixture full rich.
• Mags on Both.
• Pull primer all the way out.
• Crank -- one hand on starter button, the other on the primer.

When engine starts, push the primer in slowly to feed it gas to keep it running. Don't pump the throttle -- use the throttle only to control rpm.

If it dies or fails to start, prime some more and try again. If it still fails to start, try prayer.

Once it's running ok, don't forget to close and lock the primer.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

If you did not smell fuel it probably needed more. Put nose near exhaust stack after a few attempts.
Common to underprime at the onset of cooler weather (denser air = more fuel needed to keep up that stoichiometric mixture.
Also consider frosted plugs (unlikely at 30F I'd think).

 

[gismo]

Suggestions for cold starting a Champ? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. P.S. Cross posted at AOPA.

I had the same problem with the 65 HP Continental in my Porterfield. When it was cold, I couldn't get enough vaporized fuel in to the cylinders to fire. A couple of times I resorted to pulling a plug and pouring a tiny bit of fuel into one cylinder. My mechanic solved the problem by moving the primer output from the carb to the ports on two cylinder heads intended for that purpose.

Now I can start it with two strokes of primer when cold without fail.

 

[Tom-D]

Suggestions for cold starting a Champ? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. P.S. Cross posted at AOPA.

Jim G

85 horse no electric???

chocks
mags off
throttle closed
mixture idle cutoff
prime one shot
flip, flip, flip. flip
prime one shot
flip, flip, flip, flip.
prime one shot.
flip, flip, flip, flip
mags on
mixture rich, throttle closed

FLIP purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[grattonja]

Thanks all so far. It's 65 horse not 85 but probably not much different. Next time I put it on the schedule I shall try the various proposals. Sounds like we simply weren't getting enough juice in there to make it happen.

Jim G

 

[Bones]

Well my old 7AC in the winter lit off like this:

10-15 pulls(more pulls seemed to be the trick in the winter) through with the throttle set for start. However it started much better if I pre-heated it with a contraption I made from a Wal-Mart portable cermaic heater with some Dryer Hose attached to it.