I have followed the Lycoming manual to a T for cold engine starts and it has never been satisfactory. Maybe someone will see all this and provide some grand insight and show that I was doing wrong to begin with, but anyways the standard Lycoming way by the book goes something like this:
- crack throttle 1/4", mixture full, boost pump 3-6 seconds, mixture cut-off, crank, raise mixture slowly as begins to catch.
Thats what is suppose to happen but what happens at the crank stage is crank crank crank crank crank.. and then I finally stop because its not working. I crank again and then it finally starts, or sometimes a quick boost (1 second), and then it cranks right up. Arggg! I've tried making minor tweaks to this process, but always with the same general approach because its by the book.
I finally figured out something that works much better with our system, which is two slickstart mags (no impulse coupling) and a slickstart shower of sparks booster. Heres how the new process goes:
- throttle 50%, mixture 50%, boost 5 seconds, then crank. It cranks right up and I then immediately reduce throttle to idle.
Just wanted to share in case anyone else has similar frustration. Comments are welcome.