Engine Cooling Fixes

[CamTom12]

Well, I spent some time aloft this weekend (6.3 hrs!) and most of it was in class G, thinking about stuff and things.

I was thinking about how on my last flight, in a descent, the oil temps increased. Throttle remained the same, I just pitched nose down and accepted the higher airspeed. No throttle adjustment. It just didn't make sense.

Anyways, at some point over central AL I reached up and flipped my wig-wags and strobes off and saw about an 8 degree OT drop nearly immediately. Pulling the alternator field CB got another 5 or so. Hmm.

I knew there was a problem with the old temp sender and when it got replaced the erratic readings went away. And then I *thought* I'd verified the indicating system with a can of hot oil. What I didn't think about was that the engine, alternator and the electrical consumers were off.

So now that I've got cord showing in one of my tires, I'm bringing the airplane down to do some maintenance that I've been putting off for a little while. One of those things is re-running some grounds. I'll also be replacing those exhaust tips that are not fair in so well and installing my Pmag, finally. I'll report back when she's flying again.

Pop quiz: how many hours would you guess this oil has on it?

[smcnutt]

If it was my engine, I would guess about 3-5 hours.

[CamTom12]

If it was my engine, I would guess about 3-5 hours.

Ouch, that stinks!

It's got a little more than that, though. Any other guesses?

[CamTom12]

Pop quiz: how many hours would you guess this oil has on it?

Just to add to the original post a bit, I think this looks pretty normal for what it is. I had the cowl off and wanted to check the relative color and how well it coated the glass. Totally unscientific but I was curious. It also didn't smell burnt, which made me happy.

I don't think I'd be able to guess hours on the oil, but I was curious if anyone here thought they might have an idea.

[eskflyer]

ours looks like that after about 35 hours. we run only cargas and have oil filter.

[CamTom12]

Well, no more guessers I reckon. The big number was 14.6 hrs.

Like I said before, that's a hot sample. I thought it coated the side of the glass well and although it looks a little dark to me I think it's doing ok. Purely an eyeball inspection though. I'm going to change it early this time for another blackstone labs sample. Shooting for about 30 hours on the oil for the next sample. The last sample had 50 hrs on it, but a few periods of 4-5 week sitting.

[CamTom12]

Hey guys! Boy have I missed y’all!

Some non-flying news, we had a baby boy in March! He’s such a great kid, we’re truly blessed.

I originally wanted to try and get him up in the air as early as possible (just a pattern for the memory and photo-op), but momma informed me that she wanted to wait a few months so I decided to bring the plane down for some deferred improvements I’d been planning.

I moved my oil cooler to the firewall and installed my pmags as well as some minor maintenance to my exhaust and baffling.







All this work started in June. In July I started a new assignment for work which ended up being much busier than I had anticipated. Plus, did you know that babies go to bed ridiculously early at night? Long story short, I gave up my weekends at the hangar to spend more time with my son and the airplane languished, half-done, for a long time. A looooong time.

I took a week off of work last month and got the mods all finished up, and yesterday I completed a shakedown flight in the pattern.

It’s been busy so I shed my forum presence for a while. And then when it calmed down a bit I wanted to get the Racer back in the air before I got back on the line.

During the flight I noticed my compass was leaking so I have a rebuild kit on the way for it. If it’s not one thing, it’s another!



Anyways, I’m glad to be back and catch up with everyone! We’ll get some pics of the kiddo flying soon

[Steve Pierce]

Good to see you have it back in the air and will be influencing another generation of pilots.

[Subsonic]

Eye candy. Envious of your patrol/observer-type windows. And, do I spy some specially formed lift strut fairings at the wing interface? Geez and check out the engine cowling and oil cooler mount, paint job and, and... How fast is it? Any detail pics of the windows appreciated.
-Subsonic

[Subsonic]

So, there's no venting of the oil cooler triangular mounting box through the firewall, right? Does the air only move from the upper baffle to the firewall box, and through the cooler?