G'day Paul

Yesterday I heard the sounds of silence at 8500ft in my RV7. Fortunately
I have been sticking to open country for the 40 hour test period and was
able to select a stubble paddock uphill and into wind and made a safe
landing.
The two coil packs on the front rotor had failed, melted plastic near the
connectors. When the front rotor failed I was able to continue at 80
knots for about ten minutes until the ignition circuit breaker popped.
The coil packs failed unsafe (shorted).
When the rescue crew arrived I rewired the two good coils to the
trailing plugs and flew the twenty miles home.
That makes four Mazda failed Mazda coil packs. The first two came with
the engine.
I am going to remove the tangential muffler as it is a huge heat source
even with heaps of shielding, and try a 3 into one pipe system with no
muffler as there is a 4 seat Jabiru flying in Sydney (with the Renesis
from a Cobra that crashed in Queensland) that apparently is reasonably quiet.

Regards Ian Beadle

Wow! Ian you live a charmed life. Very sorry to hear that.
Very glad you made a safe landing. Stock RX8 coils I assume.
Do you have a picture where they were mounted?

Perhaps they are not up to continuous RPM. Have you measured the current?
Perhaps a few low ohm power resistors are called for. What ignition
system are you using? How wide is the pulse?

As far as I know the GM V8 coils have given no trouble.


Tell me more about the RX8 engine powered Cobra that crashed in
Queensland. Why did it crash? Does Baz know about this?

Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.

Ian,

At the risk of jamming up the message board with non-technical
stuff--congratulations on getting through this one unscathed.  There are a
lot of us who are years behind the folks ont he forefront like yourself, and
we appreciate the hard-won knowledge that we'll have a result of your work
(and gutsiness).

Mark Waldron

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