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I am flying a Lancair Legacy with an IO-550 10:1 compression -
Performance engine that has been inspected and rebuilt about 60 hrs
ago. I have had a problem, which I attributed to new cylinder/rings,
with excessive oil consumption. Initially I was using about a qt an
hour and this improved at about 15 hrs. Seemed like normal break in.
Then one flight back from the coast of OR (Sea Level - I fly out of
Bend - 3500 ft), I started losing oil pressure. When I landed after
the hour flight I had about 5 qts left. I started with 9. I
attributed it to a crazy idea I had to hook the breather tube into the
exhaust. I was getting really tired of cleaning the bottom of the
plane and my hangar floor. I disconnected it and flew and problem
solved. Just recently on a trip back East the same thing happened.
Got to Rawlings, Wy 8.5 qts running grat no problems. Next stop about
1.5 hrs, 2 added qts. On my way to Kansas City oil pressure dropping
slowly so I diverted and now I was down to 4-5 qts. After spending
the night in Kansas city and buying a case of oil, I flew back to
Bend. Used 1/2 qt in 6 hrs.
So a few things. I have a 12 qt oil pan, I have an air/oil separator,
I checked my crank pressure by hooking a pressure gauge to the
breather (before the separator) and it is high somewhere in the 4-5
psi. I did a compression check and.
OK so why intermittently dumping from the oil breather?
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