Stats
For transparency and clarity, I dug up my post from 10/11/17 in another EI reliability thread to save people the trouble of searching:
"Well, I'll break the mold here and publish our stats if you care to believe them. I published this (with some new additions) on another aircraft forum a while back. Note, most of our systems for aircraft, outside of military usage, are integrated fuel and ignition systems so more complex than ignition-only products. I've presented the whole history here to the best of our records and my recollections. If you're a direct SDS customer, feel free to ad any comments, negative or positive.
The stats on our electronics, compiled over the last 20+ years (reported to us or observed personally, attributed to actual electronic component failure):
550,000 + flight hours on over 1850 systems
High time ECU- 145,000 hours (bench test one)
High time fliers of our systems- 1500 hours (Rover V8), 1700 hrs (Lycoming O-360 and Subaru), 2 at 2000+ hours (Rotax 912 and Jabiru used for flight training)
High time automotive system (EM-1, circa 1994 used in 5 different cars- estimated 12,000+ hours).
ECU failures on aircraft- zero
Crank sensor failures- zero
EJ25 coil pack failures- zero
Fuel pump failures- zero (2 failed when improperly mounted)
Wiring harness failures- zero
Injector failures- 2 unconfirmed (claimed but never sent back for our inspection)
Temp sensor failures- 2 in aircraft (non-critical system failure and new fix applied 5 years ago)
MAP sensor failures- 5 in aircraft (non-critical failure, cause on 4 found to be improper mounting with vacuum port facing up- moisture ingress and these sensors were 3rd party supplied as well)
TPS failures- 2 in aircraft (1 over 20 years old, moisture ingress. Sealed design used for last 10 years)
Incidents/ Accidents
We've heard of 1 forced landing which was the result of poor wiring by the installer with an injector wire pinched to ground. Same customer, some time before had intermittent engine running, traced to a very scary wiring connection to injector power.
One V6 where the user installed an aluminum exhaust system which collapsed under the heat load and melted through the Hall sensor cable. Forced landed in a tomato field. Afterwards, we supplied with fire sleeve over the cables and now have Tefzel cables.
One plane limped around the pattern after takeoff on 3 of 4 cylinders with an apparently dead injector (low EGT and CHT indication). Landed safely. Injector was checked extensively, worked fine in testing. ECU changed out and old one sent back. No fault found in old one and it has been running perfectly in our shop car for nearly 4 months now. We suspect a wiring issue in the aircraft as no fault was found with the ECU or other components. I should mention that this aircraft has a brand X ignition system on it, not ours. This one remains a mystery.
One fatal accident locally here where I helped the TSB find that the installer had mis-wired circuits to the wrong breaker value. Breaker tripped at about 300 feet AGL, pilot tried to land back on a crossing runway, stall/spin.
We've had reports of three, 3rd party ignition drivers attached to our systems which failed from poor/cold solder joints, fortunately all on the ground. Lesson: don't attach 3rd party devices to SDS. We sent new parts to people so they could remove the defective 3rd party components and continue flying safely.
At least a dozen reports of rough running/engine shutdowns in flight. Most of these eventually linked to wrong plug wires or non- resistor plugs used or wired contrary to our recommendations. Bad grounds are the #1 cause of odd running issues. Some ECUs have been found wet inside or had flood damage at some point. Third party parts added to our electronics in several cases. All aircraft down safely although probably some soiled underwear in a couple cases.
Several ECUs sent back by customers saying they didn't work. Bench tested, installed on test engine here. Worked fine, sent back, customers later found issues with their wiring or installation.
Of course, we've had a number of people screw up wiring on installation and fry things, usually when they cut into the harness and make their own connections. Others have programmed things inappropriately, mounted magnets wrong, fuel pumps with reverse polarity, forgot power and ground connections etc.
We've had some vexing, weird issues on occasion but have eventually solved almost all of them for our customers. Almost always wiring installations.
I can think of two software screwups on release of EM-5 6 cylinder systems. Discovered prior to any engines being run in one case and a rough running issue which was not a safety concern, new boards shipped to our commercial customer. New hardware/ software sent out to 4 affected customers immediately at our expense in the second case.
We supplied some components to a vendor about 10 years ago which, through insufficient testing and rushing to meet a deadline, were causing hot running coils COP. Lesson learned, test, test, test and the design is only ready when it's ready.
Zero CPI failures in aircraft or automotive usage to date.
The bottom line, based on all this experience, is that you're unlikely to suffer a critical electronic failure with our products in your flying career if not modified in some way and are properly installed and operated as we recommend.
Of course, not all EFI/EI brands have our record of reliability and some are really quite poor from reports we get from their ex-clients who are replacing other brands with our stuff.
We encourage everyone to report their problems so we can see if there is a pattern and develop a fix. I have no problem with people reporting their problems here. We won't cut off support to you.
If you've had an issue/ failure with SDS that we haven't resolved, contact me directly or post it here. We don't have anything to hide.
We're not perfect but we try to fix anything wrong and make it right. We build on evolutionary improvements which we try to test thoroughly before product release."
********************************************************
I'll add some more data we have now from the last 2 years:
I've seen one actual Walbro fuel pump failure now. I got the pump back from the customer and dissected it. The motor on it ran normally but it did not pump anything. Despite taking it down to the last part, I could find no reason why it wasn't working.
The one mystery event above with the engine running on 3 of 4 cylinders happened again. This aircraft had a third party ignition system on it, not SDS. This supplied our ECUs with the RPM signal instead of using our usual Hall Effect sensor. Changed over to our sensor and the problem has never re-occurred a couple of hundred flight hours down the road.
One more fatal accident in 2018 with a plane having SDS EFI on it. After 10 years trouble free flying with the previous owner. The new owner, a very low time pilot, took off after 2 hours of dual on type with questionable weight and C of G. Stalled and spun in on his first solo flight. Engine running at impact according to the accident report.
One customer fried 2 ECUs in quick succession this year, made it down safely on the backup ECU in each case. After 5 months of investigation, photos revealed the cause- installer had tie wrapped the air temp sensor cables to the spark plug wires! Rerouted, problems gone and flying well now.