Suddenly it was 1973.
Dan came over to the hanger at Oxnard and the TTC would not
start. He thought sure it was another wiring error.
I called Nils and he and I tested the electrical system again
and it was OK. Everything worked however  the engine failed
to fire even once. Even the plugs were dry and looked fine.

We finally narrowed it down to water still in the engine.
Took the plugs out and turned the engine over with the starter.
Lots of vapor came out of the spark plug holes. We thought
it might be Methanol. I had the bright idea of holding  a paper
towel up to it. I borrowed some matches to see if it would burn.
No burn!! Water vapor!!!!

Back in 1973 the o-rings between the rotor house and the
end house would melt if you over heated your rotary engine.
They were made of neoprene instead of silicon.

The apex seals would scrape up all the water in the engine
and deposit it in the spark plug holes. No way in hell
would the engine start.

We thought this might be what was wrong. We continued to turn it over until
only dry air came out of the spark plug holes. Then we moved it outside and tied it
down with a long rope  to a fire hydrant. I was worried that it might
run away.

Then it started. Nils shot the videos. Before, best and better.
Before is self explanatory. It ran rough. we kept running
it until we guessed all the water was out. We figured
out there was a lot of watter in the compressor side
of the turbo. We finally got it to run steady at 3000 RPM.
We ran it for about 5 minutes.

Paul Lamar

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