Anticept Posted January 31, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2018 Yes we have had 2 engines replaced. It was a waste, they are in excellent condition. I've been using parts from one. We are now on an oil analysis program and are scoping cylinders instead of doing tbo. But if they have problems or start to show signs of high wear, we will swap out the engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Lee Posted January 31, 2018 Report Share Posted January 31, 2018 Hi Corey, So long as the engine passes the on condition inspection which is nothing more than an annual there is no reason to dump an engine. I have friends with 3k-4k hrs. on their engines. No use scoping cylinders either. Cylinders are nikasil and are so hard it takes a diamond hone to even touch them. If you're using 100LL then it may be good to have the piston tops cleaned and maybe the heads worked on to get rid of the lead around the valves and guides and then the gearbox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anticept Posted January 31, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2018 The areas of concern are valves cupping or valve seats wearing, which is a good idea to scope the cylinders to see if they start doing that, and keep up with the gearbox maintenance too. It's just a quick job to do while you pull the plugs. As with any recip, those valve stems are the real weak point to just running on condition forever. Pretty much everything else that I can think of off the top of my head can be detected as a failure in progress. Eventually those stems are gonna let go. What I don't know about rotax is if they give suddenly, or stretch and become noticeable first. On lycomings, there were a few valves that had that problem. They would break suddenly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Baker Posted January 31, 2018 Report Share Posted January 31, 2018 Corey, are you aware of any valve problems on a Rotax that were not related to having air in the lifters, or using leaded fuel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Lee Posted January 31, 2018 Report Share Posted January 31, 2018 Ho Corey, You should never see valve cupping in a Rotax. The valves are super hard. Armor coated. They are not even one piece at MFG, but two pieces welded together. You can not do a valve job on them because they are so hard. So all they would ever need is some cleaning especially after using lots of 100LL. The guides may need reaming due to lead and the seats recut. If a stem on a valve were to break you would know it instantly. That has happened on a couple worldwide, but is very rare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anticept Posted January 31, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2018 What I am saying is, I would prefer them to slowly give way. That can be detected before failure. Sudden failures are very bad. I don't like sudden failure modes. Scoping a cylinder also gives a bit of info on cylinder health. Just like looking at the end of a spark plug. I had one that was starting to use a bit of oil. Scoping cylinder 4 told me everything right then, oil ring needed replaced. It only takes me a minute to look inside. Could probably even just do this every couple hundred hours and not miss a thing. It is quite unlikely to find anything, I agree, but that can be said about pretty much every inspection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Baker Posted February 1, 2018 Report Share Posted February 1, 2018 Roger, I would suggest that you move the page 4 contents from this thread over to this thread, http://ctflier.com/topic/4618-on-condition-rotax-maintenance/?tab=comments#comment-68500 instead. It is not really relevant to cabin heat, and would be better of in the "on condition" thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WmInce Posted February 1, 2018 Report Share Posted February 1, 2018 2 hours ago, Tom Baker said: Roger, I would suggest that you move the page 4 contents from this thread over to this thread, http://ctflier.com/topic/4618-on-condition-rotax-maintenance/?tab=comments#comment-68500 instead. It is not really relevant to cabin heat, and would be better of in the "on condition" thread. x2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Lee Posted March 10, 2018 Report Share Posted March 10, 2018 I had the problem and it was because the carb heat vale wasn't totally closed. So the engine was sucking in most of the hot air. Once the valve was closed properly I had lots of heat. I had sealed off the openings and added foam to better seal the pilots door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Downs Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 Can someone explain the idea behind the the baffles? Is it supposed to increase the air pressure so it is forced into the cabin? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Baker Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 2 hours ago, Al Downs said: Can someone explain the idea behind the the baffles? Is it supposed to increase the air pressure so it is forced into the cabin? Which baffles are you referring to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Downs Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 take a look up the thread. I am trying to fix the cabin heat and it was suggested to install one or two baffles in the heat shroud around the muffler but I am not sure what that will do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Lee Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 Hi Al, Give me a call at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WmInce Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 1 hour ago, Al Downs said: take a look up the thread. I am trying to fix the cabin heat and it was suggested to install one or two baffles in the heat shroud around the muffler but I am not sure what that will do I assume that would reduce the "flow rate" of air passing around the muffler can, thus increasing the air temperature, before it flows downstream to the cabin nozzles. I am not sure that would be a good idea. Are you sure you don't have a leak in your cabin heat system somewhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Baker Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 The baffles are to force the air flowing over the muffler to travel a greater distance, allowing more time for heat transfer. Also a trick with some airplanes is to wrap something like a screen door spring around the muffler. This allows for more surface area to transfer heat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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