----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2005 12:48
PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Oil leak
John,
Don't laugh, but I've heard that you can use flour to help locate the
source of a leak. You put flour on the suspect area, run it a little
bit, and see where the flour has fresh oil on it. I guess that the
theory is that the flour soaks it up, and keeps it from spreading
around.
The
only down side would be that be fan in the back, blowing the flour
away.
Just
a thought.
Steve Brooks
Yes, and if you
sift the flower through a screen afterwards and mix it thoroughly back with
the wife's supply, she won't even know you borrowed it. Paul
Conner
Hi
Guys,
I've been chasing an oil leak for a while now. It only happens when
the engine is running. When I get back from a 20 minute flight the cowl has
oil streaks down the outside, everything under the cowl has an oil film
on it, and the turbo is seriously smokin'. I could probably make a
similar mess by spraying about 1/2 cup of oil at the cowl and
engine.
Today I took the plane up and down the runway a couple of times and
did a couple of runups with the cowl off. I seem to be a little down on
power - (3950 instead of 4050 on static). When I got back the mount plate
below the turbo had fresh oil on it and I could see air bubbling through
this oil at the joint of the mount plate and the engine, just by the turbo.
See attached picture with arrow. In fact the entire join between the engine
and the plate on the right (turbo) side seems wet with oil and there's
another pool at the front which I don't think migrated from the back.
I
get the feeling that this "bubbling" might become a fine jet of oil which
points directly at the turbo when the engine's running, otherwise I
don't see how oil could get up into the turbo housing and smoke like it
does. I'm trying to understand why there might be pressure here. The
breather is definitely not blocked, and in fact, on this particular run, I'd
even left the dipstick out. Could the bubbling air be a compression leak
from the join between the rotor hosing and the backplate? My oil level
is maybe 1/4 - 1/2 inch below the level of the mount plate and the plane was
on a slight grade making the back lower. The bubbling stopped after a few
minutes and did not return when we turned the prop.
I'm resigned to pulling the lower cowl, sump and sump plate and
redoing the RTV join (again), but I'm wondering - should there be pressure
here? Is there some other problem causing this. Am I overfull with
oil? Could the turbo oil return be "landing" on the mount plate, then
running back along the join? I'm planning a compression test next time I go
down to the hangar.
Any other thoughts or suggestions?
Regards,
John (13.9 hrs and holding)
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