In the last months I’ve seen many different REP pilots using the wrong startup procedure, ending up with a starved or flooded engine, a blown starter or a dead battery.
This is somewhat frustrating because things like that in real life would cost money! But there’s a simple procedure, used in real world operations, that will help you. 🙂

The TCM IO-520 startup procedure:

  1. Check your engine temperature (CHT). Is it cold or the needle is near/inside the green arc? This will influence the priming time
  2. Set max throttle
  3. Set max prop RPMs
  4. Set full mixture
  5. Now it comes the important part:
    • If the engine is cold, engage the electric fuel pump until the fuel flow peaks
    • If the engine is warm (CHT needle in the green arc), engange the electric fuel pump for about half a second
    • If the engine is between cold and warm (CHT needle near the lower end of the green arc), engange the electric fuel pump for more than a second but disengage it before the fuel flow peaks
  6. Set the throttle at about 1/4”
  7. Engange the starter until startup

The engine should startup in few revolutions.

Some more tips:

Remember these things:

  1. It’s better to underprime the engine than flooding it. If the engine does not start at the first attempt, do another fast priming and re-engage the starter
  2. There’s no need to keep the fuel pump on during startup. It will only help you flood the engine.
  3. With REP the engine may be flooded by the pump even when it’s running at low RPMs, so beware of it and switch off that damn pump!
  4. The turbocharged TSIO-520 (the one that powers the Centurion) is more delicate and need to be primed with much more attention to avoid a fuel flooding

That’s it. Did this procedure work for you? Let us know on facebook!
See you soon with some V35B news!

How To: quickly startup the engine with REP
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