Engine start: written by a mechanic

We arrived in our city, Santarém, Brazil last December. We had decided to change the motor in this Murphy Rebel and so I removed the Subaru  (car engine) and looked for a Lycoming (airplane engine). In March, we purchased an overhauled Lycoming O-320 that had been in someone’s hangar for 3+ years. We re-did all the electrical (new wires, breakers, switches, gauges) and I had to purchase all the accessories for the engine. Water entered the hangar to a depth of about 2 feet in April and stayed until July. On July 4, we moved the motor to the hangar and I started installation (I had it in my garage because it was really humid in the hangar and I had no idea when I would get it started). On Friday we got the magnetos back from being inspected and we installed them, set the timing, temporary fixed a fuel leak and tried to start it for the first time (video)

We pulled the bottom spark plugs, turned it over with the starter until we got oil coming out the oil pressure hose. Then we tried it. It caught on the 1st or 2nd rotation and then quit. This happened twice until I got the throttle set. On the 3rd try, it started and ran–God is GOOD, all the time. We have 2 oil leaks to fix and a few more “ground runs” before it is ready to fly. Also one of the fuel tanks is leaking so yesterday we removed the wing and today started the process of opening up the wing to re-seal the tank.

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