Priming a 210 Continental

[ak2711c]

So for those of you guys running the IO-360 Continental what have you found works well for starting technique cold and warm?

[Maule 9V]

I have no experience in your type of cold but my normal way is to set full rich, full throttle, engage the electric fuel pump and count 5 seconds after the fuel pressure is up to the bottom of the green. I close the throttle and quickly open it a crack and crank the starter. After engine start I shut off the electric fuel pump. If colder, I need to prime a few seconds longer.

[Sullivan]

Normal starts;
Mixture full, throttle cracked, boost pump for 6-7 seconds then off, mixture off. start and advance mixture.

Hot Starts: Mixture full lean, rn electric fule boost for 60 seconds then normal start.

Just my 2 cents worth and again in a lot warmer climate then yours.

[crbnunit]

Throttle at about 1", prime for about 5 seconds, start and jocky throttle untill running, shut off primer pump. This seems to work for cold starts no matter what the temp.

Warm/hot starts are usually accomplished with no priming and jockying the throttle until it starts.

Seems like I usually have to advance the throttle about mid way for cold or hot starts.

[YELLOWMAULE]

Cold start: Mixture rich, throttle closed, pump on, cycle the throttle to full and closed again. Boost pump off and stab the starter, starts on the first blade. Warm engine: No boost, an 1" of throttle and as soon as the engine catches, a little more throttle. If the engine doesn't start, reppeat process with a little boost pump ~5 seconds.

[ak2711c]

The way you guys describe your start procedures is pretty much how I have been starting mine as well as all other fuel injected motors I have ever flown. The reason I ask the question is I talked to a couple of Skymaster pilots that had around 5000 hours behind (or infront of depending on how you look at it I guess LOL) this motor. They recomended using the manual primer to prime the engine instead of the boost pump. The reason being, this engine is different from alot of fuel injected motors in that because of it having a top induction system there are drain lines off of each cylinder to drain any excess fuel from behind the intake valve right on to the ground. That is right where the fuel injection nozzle squirts the fuel. So the majority of the fuel from priming with the boost just drains onto the ground before you can even crank the motor over. I have about 450 hours on this motor and have always primed with the boost pump. However the other day when my battery was too weak to crank the motor and my preheat was not as thorough as it could have been, I still had enough battery to run the boost pump so I figured no big deal I would just prime it and then hand prop it. This was the first time I had ever done this with this motor. To my surprise I noticed all the fuel I primed with pouring onto the ground before I could even make it to the prop to pull it through. At that point I remembered something that old Skymaster pilot had told me. I had asked him why he didn't just prime with the boost pump instead of the manual primer. He said "because on a real cold start there is no way to get enough fuel to the cylinders to get it running". That made no sense to me then, my thought was how do you get more fuel than dumping it in with the fuel injectors. Well after watching all of my boost pump primed fuel drian out on the ground I finally understood. I couldn't get it primed well enough that day to get it to start. I have only started my plane with the manual primer a couple of times many years ago but shortly there after I disconnected it and capped it off after an old copper primer line broke under the dash and started dumping fuel on my legs. I have now reconnected my primer system with stainless lines so I'm wondering if any of you guys have played with using the manual primer much.
Shawn

[chetharris]

Shawn,

Not all of the Continental io-360s have the manual primer. I have had both. I much prefer starts with the manual primer. When I had a manual primer, I never used the boost pump to start my engine. After owning and flying a fuel injected engine with a manual primer, I wonder why all fuel injected engines do not have a manual primer. As you stated, starts with a low are dead battery are possible, and less fuel ends up on the ground. The manual primer gave more consistant results. My current 210c does not have a manual primer, and I am likely to install one.

Chet

[ak2711c]

Thats interesting, I didn't realize they didn't all have a manual primer.
Shawn

[taildragger]

My 1975 M5-210/C has no manual primer.

Scott

[crbnunit]

My 73 doesn't appear to have ever had a manual primer. Interesting. I've never had problems getting fired with the boost pump and am not really certain of what the difference would be. Both systems are dumping fuel into the cylinders and a fair amount of that fuel does get to the drains. I doubt the manual primer flows more fuel and liquid fuel doesn't burn very well anyway. Would the manual pump atomize the fuel better? What is the difference?

[ak2711c]

The manual primer usually ether has a single primer line that puts fuel into the intake manifold right at the wye by the throttle body or else there are two lines with one going to each intake manifold just after it makes its 180 degree turn. I think the difference is that most of the fuel from the manual primer will stay in the manifold until the motor starts cranking instead of draining out.

[iceman]

my 66 m4 210c has no manual primer

[MikeW]

My 73 M4 doesn't have a manual primer. If it's possible to put one in, that would be something I would look into. It would be nice to have a good back up primer in case the battery dies and ya got to hand prop.

Mike