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Fly EFII system 32 ECUs

riseric

Well Known Member
Patron
Are there any RV-8ers that installed the system 32 ECUs?
I'm trying to find inspiration or examples of the physical location for these.
Due to the relatively short harness lenght that need to pass thru the firewall, options seem limited to the forward bagage area unless splicing wires.
Avionics bay is starting to be congested.
Install in the rear with the battery??


I admit that planning/conceiving/installing non-standard stuff is quite challenging at times and ideas from others are gold!!!


Here's pictures (rotate the photos as needed) of a couple places in the forward bagage area I thought could do.
Left, above the fresh air vent and
right, lower bagage well.
 

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Almost final position

Thanks, and nice job BTW.
I'm leaning towards the left fuselage wall, forward of the gear tower and under the fresh air vent. I need to slightly move a big wire harness and lower the units nearer the lower longeron so the scat won't interfere.
Less chance there of water from the bagage door area.
Photo shows tentative and not final position. Wires are not secured yet :rolleyes:
 

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I installed my whole System32 in the baggage well. (Lost my smoke system! :() This included the dual ECU's, the BMU, the back-up battery, the red F/A computer and a little essential bus fuse panel. The dual fuel pump unit went on the floor to the left of the rudder pedals. I did not take any good pics, sorry.

Other places I looked at were just not workable for a retrofit, although for an initial build there would be many more options. The most difficult part of the retrofit, IMHO, was adding the duplex fuel valve and hoses! That valve is clearly designed for a side-by-side aircraft. And I'm still draining aluminum particles from the tanks, despite my best efforts. :cool: Working in the slot between the tanks and the fuselage was, to say the least, challenging.

My switches and breakers also ended up a little different from what Robert recommends, again due to the retrofit vs. initial install issues. Robert was exceptionally accessible and helpful throughout the process. :) I have an angle-valve IO-360 in the plane, which made things up front a bit more problematic. I ended up with the injectors in the intakes instead of the heads. Also had to upgrade from a 40A to a 60A alternator to be able to run night/IFR.

Finally, I do encourage you to consider access and future maintenance with everything closed up when you do your install. Feel free to contact me if you have more questions.

FWIW,
Andy
 
Retrofit data

I installed my whole System32 in the baggage well. (Lost my smoke system! :() This included the dual ECU's, the BMU, the back-up battery, the red F/A computer and a little essential bus fuse panel. The dual fuel pump unit went on the floor to the left of the rudder pedals. I did not take any good pics, sorry.

Other places I looked at were just not workable for a retrofit, although for an initial build there would be many more options. The most difficult part of the retrofit, IMHO, was adding the duplex fuel valve and hoses! That valve is clearly designed for a side-by-side aircraft. And I'm still draining aluminum particles from the tanks, despite my best efforts. :cool: Working in the slot between the tanks and the fuselage was, to say the least, challenging.

My switches and breakers also ended up a little different from what Robert recommends, again due to the retrofit vs. initial install issues. Robert was exceptionally accessible and helpful throughout the process. :) I have an angle-valve IO-360 in the plane, which made things up front a bit more problematic. I ended up with the injectors in the intakes instead of the heads. Also had to upgrade from a 40A to a 60A alternator to be able to run night/IFR.

Finally, I do encourage you to consider access and future maintenance with everything closed up when you do your install. Feel free to contact me if you have more questions.

FWIW,
Andy

Hello Andy,
From the quote above you appear to have a great case for comparison. If you flew this aircraft/engine with two different systems would you be willing to compare fuel flow and speed differences. What was the previous system?

Thanks
 
Hello Andy,
From the quote above you appear to have a great case for comparison. If you flew this aircraft/engine with two different systems would you be willing to compare fuel flow and speed differences. What was the previous system?
Thanks
OK. I previously had the Eagle EMS full EFII system from Precision Airmotive. The engine ran very smoothly with the Eagle, when it worked. Unfortunately, the system hasn't been built or sold for > 10 years and now is totally unsupported by Precision. :mad: My system started glitching randomly and I was unable to conclusively debug this. The primary side would shut down every half hour or so. It would immediately shift to the secondary ECU, then the primary would reboot and retake control. This all happened in about 1 second! Most scary was that I started getting used to it!. :eek:

The Eagle system was installed firewall forward, very different from the System32. It was a lower pressure system and used the mechanical fuel pump with an electric backup, whereas the System32 is slightly higher pressure, uses only dual electric pumps and requires a fuel return system. The Eagle EMS used an above-engine fuel spider with injectors in the standard ports. So it had most of the hot start issues of any such set-up. The System32 uses a continuous flow, below the cylinders fuel rail, and 10 seconds of fuel pump operation makes all starts cold starts! :)

IMHO, the System32 is a very simple system to set-up and tune. The Eagle EMS had dozens of incomprehensible tables that had to be tweaked to get optimal operation. My IO-360-A1B6 with 10.5:1 pistons is not standard. I do think the Eagle system had more "stupid pilot" protections. Leaning was done with a pot on the dash, but there was no controller interface like the System32 has. Tuning required hooking to the ECUs with a terminal and editing those hex tables with a text editor. Could only be done when the engine was not running.

I was not looking for maximum efficiency with LOP operations, nor absolute maximum output from the engine. I was more interested in having a simple-to-use, easily-understood engine controller that offered the same smoothness as the Eagle offered and had good support. Had I been looking for those ultimate performance things, I might have tended more toward the SDS system.

Even so, the engine will still idle smoothly well below 800 RPM (even though you ought not do so!) and normal ops are just get-up and go. I seem to have at least as much power as I had before and speeds seem ±same. Seems to run overall a bit cooler than it did before, which is great here in the AZ summers. Have to see how it works out in the mountains in the winter. Fuel flows are similar, but again, I'm not looking for every MPG.

And finally, I'd like to again extend a big kudo :D to Robert Paisley at Protek, who helped out immensely with all the intricacies of the nonstandard retrofit, even though he was more or less forced to shut down for a couple months there in Califormia. I hope they stay in business for many years to come!

FWIW,
Andy
 
Thanks Andy for your report.


Not flying yet but can attest of the high quality parts of this kit.


I will soon start another thread in Electronic Injection Systems concerning the throttle body as this one concerns ECU installation.


I also confirm Robert's quick and pertinent replies to questions about installation and operation of System 32. :cool:
 
FWD bagage well

I see you've condemmed the lower bagage well with a panel.
Nice idea, I like it !!! Specially for future access.

I still didn't commit to the final placement though.
Just finished baffles, will remove them and start on the cowling this week.
 
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