One of those out of the blue finds that you dont expect.

Chuffed to bits with this purchase.

A little corrosion on the alternator facing place, this will clean up and also isn’t that important.

Loose stuff removed and it looks a lot better.

A very clean turbine wheel.

This shows the start of the fabrication of the running stand, very basic but it’s all that is needed.

Three engine mounts from a ford fiesta are used to reduce any potential vibration damage that may occur to the GTP70.

At the moment two oddessy 12v battery’s are being used to run the engine, these may be removed later and will possibly be replaced by a Q/R battery connector, thus avoiding dedicated battery’s for every engine. The isolation switch and starting solenoid can also be seen in the picture.

I want as many of the features of the engine remotely connected to the control panel, to do this a sub junction box has been installed and all of the wires of the engine end up being connected to a 38 way multi pole connector.

Ian & Paul Bennett came for a day out and we a had a group effort in getting the GTP70 to run. The sun was out and the radio was on loud! Sad I know but it was a fun day. In the picture shown is the temporary control panel that we made, at this point we had no idea if the engine would run, nervous times.

This picture was taken at the very first full run test, all seems to be going very well.

Success! It works and everything, a celebratory handshake at the end of it all.

The FOD guard was made using aluminium strip and expanded steel mesh. They were glued to together using PU adhesive, I’m stuck on what threads are used to secure the guard to the engine, its seems that Garrett have used an odd thread?

Now that I know the engine runs, it’s time to make a proper control panel. For ease of availability I am going to use standard 2U audio style rack mount case, the controls will be fitted in to an appropriate 2U blanking plate as shown.

The multi core cable that runs from the engine enters the flight case via an intermediate box, this keeps the cable neat and tidy and close to the box.

This shows the inside of the control box, pretty basic as they come, this is due to the GTP70 having most of the control electronics integrated in to it’s own system, I just hope that they don’t go wrong, because replacing them could well be a problem.

There we go, finished. From the left.
Tacho, EGT, Oil Temp, Start & Stop Switch’s, Starter Engage Indicator, 100% RPM Trim Switch and lastly Power Switch and Indicator.

3/8 quick release fuel connection and CAV fuel filter.

Looks quite mean with an alternator attached.

Looking the business.

Initial running tests with Ian are promising and it looks like I have a good engine, which is nice.

Yep, its a good one, feeling more confident every start.

This video shows how a modification to the pneumatic FCU system can allow you to carefully control the engines RPM.

More rpm control and a bit of a blow from the air cooler outlet 🙂