I agree. I am monitoring it closely.
The last flight for which I have data was 0.25qt in 1hr airborne time. That’s good. But it’s not possible to get accurate results because say a 1 degree inclination can shift the dipstick reading by 5-10mm.
There is no issue with this if I was doing what most people do, but I want to do some long / high altitude flights. I am definitely not going for a top overhaul. Waste of money – I would do the full OH if I was doing that. I think it’s safe to say there are no broken rings because the scraping would show up in oil analysis.
BTW isn’t rocking the prop while pressurised likely to chop your fingers off? 
I recall one guy (an LAA inspector) almost succeeding.
Peter wrote:
isn’t rocking the prop while pressurised likely to chop your fingers off?
Well, no matter what, you are advised to hold the prop firmly with both hands so that it doesn’t get away from you …
Peter wrote:
But it’s not possible to get accurate results because say a 1 degree inclination can shift the dipstick reading by 5-10mm.
Could it be that the sudden oil consumption you noticed after a long flight could be explained by this? Just a read error?
I don’t think so. It’s there allright.
But the point at which it became apparent is hard to be sure about – because
One has to be careful with this stuff…
On the Bastia-Shoreham flight, about 6:20 airborne time, the oil went down by about 3 qts. That corresponds to my careful measurements on the following flights which were all just short low level stuff.
The other thing is that I have been looking only at airborne time, whereas I suspect most people are using hobbs time or similar which includes a lot of ground time.
On the last flight, 1.5hrs including taxi time, based on a very careful dipstick measurement, I burnt 1qt in 3.5hrs.
That’s really not a bad oil consumption, and together with your perfect compression values … I would not care too much. I think you can cross the Thames again (;-))
I would like to try that solvent ring-washing procedure, but I need to find somebody who can read that PDF description, really understand it, and do it.
Peter wrote:
I need to find somebody who can read that PDF description, really understand it, and do it.
You don’t qualify yourself?
Peter 15-Oct-15 21:21 #151
I would like to try that solvent ring-washing procedure, but I need to find somebody who can read that PDF description, really understand it, and do it.
Its very simple. Just do as they say and put rags on the floor. The hardest part is to find the chemicals. Actually I bought some back from the states since it is a LOT cheaper and Easier to get. MEK Stoddard and Xylene
By the way why didnt you pull the bottom plug for the cyl in question?
In short, the issue is logistics. The only place where I want to leave the plane for a long time is the place where no work can be carried out (except a complete engine removal). I could get cylinders pulled, and if necessary replaced, at the firm in Thurrock, but if I am going to get into replacing cylinders then I may as well go for a gold plated overhaul – $36k. And get that drive shaft for the backup alternator (it’s shown in the engine MM as a “standard option”) put in at the same time.
Re the bottom plug, I didn’t see much point since last time it looked good enough. The oil usage is also going down, gradually.
I think MEK is banned here…
