SureFly Electronic Ignition

[DaveS1900]

Question for those that have Surefly,
I talked to a mechanic who didn't recommend surefly because they had experience with a situation where one of the electronic ignitions took out both EI's. I was all set to put at least one on, but if the mechanic doesn't embrace it, then it's hard to move forward.
Thoughts?

[MarkA]

Dave,

Was your mechanic talking about replacing both mechanical mags with SureFly electronic ignitions?

SureFly just received FAA approval to replacing both mags with SIMNs (which requires a separate battery backup) a few months ago. I'd be surprised if the dual electronic ignition failure he is referring to was related to a SureFly installation. I'd be interested to hear more details if that was in fact the case.

Thanks

[DaveS1900]

Yes I agree it probably wasn't surefly. It seems like the Cirrus guys have dabbled in electronic ignition and it didn't go well. That's just a guess.
Dave

[MarkA]

With either a dual or single SureFly installation, the two ignition modules are completely independent of each other so if one fails, it should have no impact on the other.

My initial impression is that the cost vs benefit of a dual SureFly configuration seems a little questionable. The additional hardware cost for two SureFly SIMs (currently $1,755 each) plus the battery backup needed for one of the SIMs (currently about $1,700 for TCW's battery + installation kit) plus the more complicated installation costs would be quite a bit more than the relatively simple single SureFly SIM installation.

The only real benefit of a dual SIMs vs the left-SLIC-mag-right-SIM setup is the elimination of the 500-hour service needed for the remaining SLIC mag. Hot and cold starts would be basically the same for both configurations – all 8 plugs would fire in both configurations. There may be a slight cruise fuel efficiency gain since both SIMs would advance the spark, but I suspect it would be pretty insignificant vs the left-SLIC-mag-right-SIM setup installation.