I know it's not Friday, but all this oil leak talk made me feel like I should share that painful memory with you, guys!
A few years ago, in South Africa, I was busy upgrading the instrument panel of my taildragger KR2. Obviously, the aircraft was grounded for a while, so it was a good time to do some engine maintenance too. Then, one day, I finished the new instrument panel, and felt like fitting it quickly, so that I could resume the fun part: FLYING! . So, after work, I drove directly to the hangar, installed the new instrument panel, reconnected all the wires and lines, and prepared the freshly serviced engine for a run-up. At about 8 PM, I asked Andrew, the Black guy who kept the hangar to open the doors. I pushed the aircraft outside, and got ready for the engine run-up. Obviously, I did not bother to put the engine cowling back. Wheels chocked, tail tied town; I swinged the prop, and sat happily in the cockpit... until Andrew signalled that something was wrong. I shut the engine, and asked "What's wrong?". Andrew answered: "Eeesssh! Baas, the oil, she is too much!". And indeed, there was a very large oil pool under the engine, exactly as he said! So, I learnt my first lesson of the night: do not, ever, forget the seals when you put the tappet covers back, otherwise you are going for a serious oil mess! A few minutes later, tappet covers seals duly in place, all evidence of the blunder wiped clean, I made a second start, sat in the cockpit, and happily revved the engine, when suddenly, I got the disturbing feelng that my pants were wet. A glance down confirmed the impression: my pants were soaked with engine oil! That's how Iearnt my second lesson of the night: when installing the instrument panel, never, ever, forget to reconnect the oil line of the oil pressure gauge, otherwise you are going for a VERY serious oil mess! Oh, well! Now, my heart was filled with anger, so I smartly channelled that anger towards the one-and-only culprit: the MECHANICAL oil gauge! What a stupid idea, anyway, to run a high pressure, high temperature oil line inside a cockpit! What would happen if the line burst in flight, eh? Who wants to get an engine failure and a pair of burnt legs to boot? Incidentally, a few days ago,I had bought an electrical oil pressure gauge, which I intended to mount some day. Well, let's say that's the day. I am not going to ever start that engine again with that sillly mechanical oil gauge! So, I rushed home, took the electrical gauge, informed my wife that she was in for a lonely evening, and rushed back to the airfield. By the time I was back, Andrew had wiped any evidence of my second blunder clean. How nice of him! Installing that electric gauge took nearly two hours of hard work. You see, my engine has fancy baffles, made of mild steel, which had to be reshaped to fit the sender, so a lot of drilling and grinding was required. But a couple hours later, I was ready for my third engine run-up, this time with an electrical oil sender in place. With such a safe and reliable solution now fitted, nothing else could go wrong, right? Well, not quite. This time, it took a few minutes before Andrew gave me the dreaded signal again. Oh, no! ANOTHER oil mess! Sprayed all over the engine! A short investigation led to the third lesson of the night: when drilling and grinding in the oil sender area, make sure you don't nick the oil cooler, even slightly, because the darn thing is VERY fragile and any tiny nick may result in a high pressure oil leak!, which in turn will give you a VERY BAD oil mess! That last blunder was the most costly, because, you see, VW Type 4 oil coolers are expensive, and also hard to find. But at least, I did not have to tell them at the shop why exactly I needed one! Serge Vidal KR2 "Kilimanjaro Cloud" Paris, France
