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Temporary engine failure during lightning storm

S

steve hale

Guest
"This week I was running from

"This week I was running from a storm at higher than usual rpm's (4000) with twin crusader 5.7's. One of the engines dropped rpms to zero and spit and sputtered then reocvered when I brought the throttles back. It did it two more times after 2000 rpms immediately following. I left it at 2000 and slowly brought it up to 3500 with no more issues the rest of trip or rest of week. The oil pressure seemed a little higher than normal ( about 65psi) where the other ran 45 psi. The day before we had to replace the raw water pump due to an overheat issue. Did the overheating damage the engine, did the oil pressure effect it, or did the lightning ( travel thru the water, up the shafts, and cause a misfire? The lighting was on top of us with no time delay between flash and thunder."
 
Steve I would tend to think th

Steve I would tend to think that you may have experienced a glitch in something other than a problem caused by the lightening. Could it be possible that an electronic engine control is affected by an intense electrical field? I have not heard of it but .. that's not to say otherwise. I remember from the ham radio antenna days where 30 sq ft of metal is waving at 70 feet in the air...that an arc over ...NOT even a direct hit could knock the house off of a foundation. Powerful co-incidence but I would look elsewhere
 
You also might have just had a

You also might have just had a bit of water in the fuel that your acceleration may have moved around in the fuel tank and was picked up.
 
You might have also committed

You might have also committed the Fastjeff Sin # One of having a fine fuel filter BEFORE your fuel pump.

Jeff
 
"My problem did not sound like

"My problem did not sound like fuel, the drop was immediate and I thought I blew the engine. It backfired thru the carb, and made some nasty noise. I'm afraid to bring it back up to 4000 in fear of doing some real damage."
 
"backfiring, sputtering, sound

"backfiring, sputtering, sounds like bad gas. running out half a bad tank myself, over 2500 rmps in sputters, under that its fine, and runs full throttle on the other tank. You should be fine."
 
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